Costa Concordia Cruise Fallout
It has been only a few days now since the Costa Cruise Ship Concordia ran aground off the coast of Italy. There is still an ongoing search for possible survivors and speculation abounds regarding what could have caused this tragic and sensational accident. Carnival Corp - the parent company of Costa - is scrambling and all blame is pointing toward the captain, and I believe rightly so. It is hard to imagine, yet still not surprising that a lapse in judgment could cause such a terrible tragedy. No doubt that the investigation and inevitable trial will be in the news for months, if not years to come.
So what does that mean for the cruise industry? Will people still want a cruise vacation? From my perspective all signs point to yes - for now. This appears to not be a failure of a company, or an industry, or a product - but the failure of a man. It appears, at this early stage, that this is just a tragic accident that was totally preventable. There are systems and rules and procedures that should be followed each and every time to prevent things like this from occurring. There is a little thing called training that should be implemented more consistently across all industries, especially those that serve the retail public.
Since I am sure that all travel consultants, advisers and agents are now dealing with answering the question - "is it safe to go on a cruise?" I thought I would just take a moment to share my response to that concern - my reply to the concern voiced from a client recently booked on an Alaska cruise for this coming spring. It seems some of the group is seriously rethinking whether to go now - here was my reply
"I can see why that would give someone pause, but like anything else, danger is all around.
By and large it is an exceedingly safe industry.
I could probably find some stats to rattle off, but why bother. To the unlucky person that does get struck by lightening on the golf course, there is little consolation that the odds are against it.
To me a small amount of risk in return for seeing and experiencing is worth it. That said, you won't find me jumping out of a perfectly good airplane even if I am jumping tandem with the world's best skydiver - no way baby!!
Cruise, pretty safe all in all."
What do I know? Not much I suppose, in the big scheme of things - but I do know that I will not let the stupidity and cowardice of one individual keep me from experiencing as much of the world as possible. I mean, I saw the Poseidon Adventure (the original) and Titanic (DiCaprio version) and did not let that dissuade me from a cruise vacation - I saw Jaws (skipped the remakes) and still get in the ocean - I saw Airport (what an excellent disaster movie) and still fly.....
Life is short and there is much to see - and a cruise ship is a great way to see a good part of the world, so here's to the next great adventure-
Lastly, we would like to express our sincere condolences to those who lost a loved one, and those that experienced this horrible event firsthand yet survived.
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