Costa Cruises has already held the coin ceremony to present its new ship the Costa Venezia, that is being built and designed with Chinese passengers in mind almost exclusively. If you are curious to know what it consists of, or where the custom of the coin ceremony comes from, I recommend that read this article.
Returning Costa Cruises, the company is investing in the Chinese market the amount of 6.000 million euros. This is the fastest growing market in the world.
Some data that we already knew about the new Costa Venezia is that it will weigh 135,000 gross tons and will have 2.116 cabins with capacity for 5.260 passengers. The ship's design is dedicated to the city of Venice so Chinese passengers will have a unique experience by virtually immersing themselves in the Italian city. The idea of Costa Cruises is to bring the Italian and European experience to the Chinese market through hospitality, style, cuisine and entertainment offer, so much so that passengers will be able to enjoy an authentic Venice Carnival at night, with handmade masks included.
The inaugural Costa Venezia cruise will be in early March 2019 from Trieste, a city near Venice, (as you could read in this article, large tonnage ships are not allowed in the port of Venice) to travel the Marco Polo route to Shanghai. The journey will visit Greece, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan. Although I have said that the market that Costa Cruises is mainly targeting with this ship is Chinese, the truth is that tickets for this inaugural cruise will also be available to Europeans.
The Costa Venezia is being built at the Fincantieri shipyards who will also deliver in 2020 a second ship, a twin of this one and which will also focus on the same market.