Page 56 - BILANCIO DI SOSTENIBILITÀ 2019 RISULTATI E PROSPETTIVE

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Designing
the future
together Central to Costa’s vision of responsible development is its focus on the value of partnerships,
consolidated over time with the communities in the different ports of call; these collaborations
are at local level but share a global perspective and are based on relations of mutual trust and
transparency. These are necessary preconditions for the establishment of effective projects
and programs aimed at long-term, sustainable development and the creation of value.
Evolution, transition and the determination to invest in responsible innovation are the
cornerstones on which the Company builds partnerships. We believe in change as an
inevitable process that is intrinsic to our relations with our key stakeholders, who are examples
of excellence, professionalism and innovation, these in turn being core values for Costa. For
us, designing the future means ensuring a long-term, strategic vision focusing on the Agenda
2030 issues and pursuing them together with the contributions of all the stakeholders
directly involved in our complex system of interdependent relations. The aim of this modus
operandi is to pursue solutions responding to the evolutionary aspects of our business, to
global emergencies and to the need to redefine the way of doing business so as to prioritize
sustainability issues.
In order to provide an experience on board that not only meets but – more importantly – pre-
empts travelers’ demands and reflects the transformation of lifestyles, Costa seeks feedback
and interprets trends and changes impacting directly on the business.
Our travel agents have always been valued resources in terms of pre-empting and responding
to new trends and new types of receptiveness characterizing the travelers comprising our
target groups. Every year we hold a convention with agents to facilitate the exchange of
experience, views and concerns. Based on the principles of constructive dialogue and inclusion,
the 2019 edition of this event, called The Champions at Sea, discussed key sustainability issues.
Ideas were shared and developed at a number of meetings and workshops. By anticipating
our current and potential guests’ scales of values vis-à-vis environmental and social issues and
impacts, we can broaden our own horizons and define paths that are increasingly in line with
the things that matter to consumers who choose to discover the world with Costa. We liaise
with travel agents constantly using the CostaExtra platform, which is operative for all our
markets worldwide, and this is vitally important. We have made substantial investments in the
platform to enhance it, make it interactive and help strengthen our partnerships. CostaExtra
enables us to manage the flow of information and facilitates communication with customers
as well as other operational services. An example of the latter is the Academy, a digital,
interactive training program dealing not only with commercial aspects but – increasingly –
also with those related to the development of sustainability issues on board Costa’s ships, so
as to raise awareness of the Company’s commitment in this sense also while marketing and
selling the cruise.
Among the interesting matters handled by our important partnerships are accessibility and
sustainable mobility, this being one of the Company’s strengths and the raison d’être for
many of its initiatives over time. Always attentive to the possibility of offering travelers low
impact services, Costa has responded to growing interest among tourists (especially in Europe)
in collective and multimodal transport solutions and has introduced a number of options for
cruise passengers, facilitating travel between the front door and the port of embarkation/
disembarkation. For example, in 2019 we entered into a partnership with Flixbus, which
operates a new low-cost intercity bus network moving millions of passengers across Europe
while reducing environmental impact. An ideal partner to provide new transport services
for us, Flixbus coaches are already operating on routes comprising or in close proximity to
many Italian ports of embarkation, and our joint objective is to extend the service throughout
Europe, thus encouraging the use of public transport instead of cars, meaning less traffic and
a reduction in CO emissions.
2
Responsible consumption is one of the issues that the global community needs to tackle
in order to find and pursue solutions that will turn negative impacts into opportunities and
enable the implementation of programs for the recovery, recycling, reuse and reconversion of
material that would otherwise be discarded or thrown away. Costa has been active in this field
for years, implementing a series of projects that were firsts for the cruise industry and beyond,
setting up far-reaching partnerships and engaging guests and crew members, who are vital to
the success of these initiatives. The recovery of food, plastic, glass and aluminum is made
possible on Costa’s ships thanks to specific projects that have led to concrete, measurable
results while enhancing the process of creation of a new cultural approach whereby items that
would once have been wasted are now viewed as opportunities (see pages 38-39).