Arnie Weissmann:
In an e
load, a
could 12
IN OTHER NEWS:
Spring break travel rebounding 6
GDSs offer more indie hotels 8
Arison: No big discounts ahead 42
Johanna Jainchill: Age Web Now 40
www.travelweekly.com
THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER OF THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
MARCH 19, 2012
Exhibits at the preview site of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum will be moved to a permanent site that is lated to open later this year at ground zero.
Dark tourism
The human urge to witness sites of violence,
disaster or tragedy, man-made or natural, is as
old as the species. Now, that urge has a name.
Anxious conference, earnings drop tell
the story of a battered cruise industry
By Donna Tunney
MIAMI BEACH — Though the grounded
Costa Concordia sat half submerged off the
coast of a small Italian island half a world
away, its shadow hung over the Miami Beach
Convention Center here as a battered cruise
industry gathered last week
for Cruise Shipping Miami,
its annual conference.
Relentless media coverage
of the Concordia’s Jan. 13 grounding, which
caused the deaths of at least 25 people and is
the focus of a criminal investigation in Italy,
prompted Costa Cruises’ corporate leaders to
forgo the conference altogether. By doing so,
they avoided what one Costa insider suggest-
ed could turn into a “spectacle” in Miami,
given that some 220 U.S. and international
reporters, about 10% more than in previous
years, were in attendance.
ANALYSIS
[ CAN EUROPE’S RIVERS SUSTAIN ALL THE ADDED TRAFFIC? ]
Viking’s 12 newbuilds in 2 years
signal a boom in river cruising
By Michelle Baran
While most of the business world
is still holding its breath for more
signs of economic recovery, Viking
River Cruises’ decision to add 12
new river cruise ships to its European fleet between now and the end
of 2013 suggests that at least one
segment of the industry is enjoying
remarkable economic boom times.
“If we hadn’t been able to fill them, we
wouldn’t have ordered them,” Torstein Ha-
gen, chairman and CEO of Viking River
Cruises, said matter-of-factly. “We need
them because we are already sold out for
this year.”
The company’s aggressive shipbuilding
schedule will increase its already sizeable
fleet by nearly 50%, to 31 vessels.
