The sinking of the Costa Concordia in January 2012 sparked a turbulent year for the cruise industry in Europe, writes Michelle Grant, travel and tourism analyst at Euromonitor International."The sinking of Concordia in January 2012 impacted the entire European cruise market with bookings declining in the months after the accident.
Carnival Corp held prices steady after the accident and monitored consumer sentiment through weekly surveys.The company felt enough time had passed for it to restart its marketing campaigns in Costa's key markets of Italy, France and Germany at the beginning of April. The company found that it needed to discount by 20-30% to get experienced cruisers back on the ship—first time cruisers are still wary of cruising after the accident according to the company's research.
The efforts have been working as the company stated in its second quarter call with investors that booking volumes for the Costa brand were up by 25% in May through June 2012 compared with the same period in 2011.
Read more: Comment: Rough seas in Europe for cruise operators
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