Cruise travel undeterred by Concordia accident

January 17th -While most analysts have predicted negative sales figures for cruise companies in the immediate aftermath of the Costa Concordia tragedy, not all cruise customers have been put off taking to the seas.

In the three days immediately following the accident, CruiseOne – along with sister company Cruises Inc. – has reported an almost 6 percent increase in its Wave Season cruise sales compared to sales during the same three-day period last year.

“While any crisis situation creates an immediate reaction from consumers, we anticipate that this will not negatively impact our Wave Season bookings,” said Dwain Wall, senior vice president and general manager at CruiseOne and Cruises Inc.

“This is certainly a very sad tragedy, but we believe the impact will be short-term and that consumers will continue to book cruise vacations,” Wall stated to the press. “The cruise industry is incredibly resilient, as we’ve seen in the past, and I firmly believe people will see this incident for what it was, which is a rare accident.”

Both CruiseOne and Cruises Inc, part of the World Travel Holdings group, will continue to market cruising as a safe way to travel.

Wall said he hoped the accident could provide ‘valuable feedback’ for improving safety onboard cruise vessels and pledged that agents from both companies would keep abreast of any changes in regulation resulting from the accident, thus maintaining their position as “local experts in the field”.