“The concept of home porting is a unique window of opportunity for visitors and is crucial for tourism in general, said Culture and Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech on Tuesday.

He was speaking on the occasion of the inaugural call in Malta of the Costa Concordia cruise liner. The Costa Concordia is the largest European cruise vessel, and will be using Malta as its home port.

Costa Crociere will be making a total of 67 calls, bringing 115,000 passengers to Malta in 2006, the company said yesterday.

Next year, it expects to make 72 calls and bring over 160,000 passengers.

The enormous cruise liner Costa Concordia is the flagship of Costa Crociere and features many technical innovations in the global cruise industry, which will help to attract holiday-makers.

It has an authentic Grand Prix driving simulator, there are five restaurants on board the ship and the interior design is the work of Miami architect Joe Farcus. The central pool area is fitted with a giant 18 metre screen which is used for daytime as well as nighttime film screenings. It is also the first ship to have two swimming pools under a retractable glass roof.

Costa Crociere SpA is an Italian cruise company and the market leader in Europe and South America.

The company operates two distinct brands: AIDA cruises and Costa Crociere. It has a total of 15 ships in service (including the Costa Concordia) and eight more under

construction.

11 of the ships in service and four on order belong to Costa Crociere’s brand which, by 2010, will operate a 15-strong fleet with a total capacity of 30,700 passengers