Costa Cruise line wants more from Manila

Just three Italian ships — the Costa Allegra, Costa Classica and Costa Romantica — will bring 20,000 cruise passengers to Manila in the Philippines in 2010. The Costa cruise line has recently been to the country to encourage national government to invest more in the facilities at port of Manila.

Costa has expressed enthusiasm for bringing more cruises to the areas because, the lines says it has ‘ beauty, history, and [because of] the origins of its people, which has more Latino influences than other countries in Asia’. But the company wants to see the country develop facilities and infrastructure because ‘ … there are no ports of call, only Manila. And cruise ships need to have certain facilities, certain infrastructure. If the Philippines could have more infrastructure that would be better because it would attract more cruise ships. Cebu is the next option, or other islands with beautiful beaches.’ Manila City is known as ‘Maynila’ by Filipinos, and is only one of the cities that make up the greater metropolitan area of Metro Manila. Home to over 14 million people, it’s set on the shores of Manila Bay just west of the geographical centre of Metro Manila, which lies between Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay in southern Luzon. There are actually 17 cities and municipalities which form the metropolitan area.

There’s another reason Manila is a popular Costa Cruise destination - at present Costa Cruise crews are 40% Filipino and the line is expecting to employ 10,000 Filipinos by 2012, when new Costa ships will be have been launched.