Costa Cruises and Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri have floated out the brand’s first ship designed and built for the China market.
“As our first ship built specifically for the Chinese market, Costa Venezia marks a new era not just for Costa Cruises and Fincantieri but for the Chinese cruise industry as a whole,” said Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Group Asia.
Costa Venezia was designed with the leisure and entertainment preferences of Chinese guests in mind, while also incorporating Venetian cultural elements such as the Carnival of Venice and the city’s gondolas.
In addition to Italian dining, luxury retail and entertainment options, guests would also be able to enjoying home comforts including a range of Chinese cuisines and Chinese-style karaoke bars.
At a length of 323m and measuring 135,500 gross tons with a capacity of 5,260 guests, Costa Venezia will be Costa’s largest ship operating homeport cruises from China. It will also be followed by the launch of its sister ship in 2020, which began steel cutting by Fincantieri in Italy earlier this year.
Expected to set sail in March 2019, Costa Venezia will arrive in China next May after a 53-day voyage following in the footsteps of Marco Polo. For the inaugural cruise, Costa Venezia will depart from Trieste in Italy and make its way through the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and South-east and East Asia before arriving at its final home of Shanghai on May 18, 2019.
