Costa Toscana, the newest Italian-flagged ship in the Costa Cruises fleet, has departed Savona on her maiden cruise.
Costa Toscana is the latest-generation ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), the most advanced technology currently available in the maritime sector to reduce emissions.
“Costa Toscana is an innovative ship that fully interprets the new cruise experience, including the exploration of destinations, on which we have been working in recent months.
“The departure of Costa Toscana also represents a new step in the journey that will bring our fleet back to full capacity this summer.
“Our restart will bolster an ecosystem that before the pandemic generated an annual economic impact of €12.6 billion in Europe, including €3.5 billion in Italy alone, with over 63,000 jobs,” said Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Cruises.
“We are seeing an increasing demand for our cruises.
“Furthermore, as the general situation improves, we expect a simplification of our enhanced health and safety protocols, based on our ongoing monitoring of the pandemic.
“The work we are carrying out in this direction with the authorities is already well advanced.
“I believe that cruises will soon be back to normal, with new protocols that will allow our guests to fully enjoy the experiences onboard and ashore, with the return, for example, of free excursions for guests”.
Costa Toscana marks the restart of the Costa Cruises fleet after the pandemic pause.
In fact, after Costa Toscana, seven more ships will return to operation, joining those already in service, until this summer, when the entire fleet of 12 ships will be operational again.