Rome (AFP)

The Italian cruise industry is preparing to return to sea from the second half of August, hoping to restore the image of this key sector of the Italian economy stricken by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Monday, the MSC Cruises group announced that it would resume operations as of August 16, with two departures from the peninsula: the MSC Grandiosa on the 16 from Genoa (north-west), and the MSC Magnifica on the 29 from Bari (south ).

The group thus becomes the first international cruise line to resume its voyages in the Mediterranean, a relief for this sector of activity "fundamental of the Italian economy", according to the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

This announcement comes three days after a government decree aimed at regulating measures to deal with the Covid-19 crisis and supporting the Italian economy, with in particular the authorization of the "restart of cruise ships from August 15".

Costa Cruises (owned by the Carnival group), main competitor of MSC Cruises and first Italian cruise line, has not yet communicated on the subject.

"After months of confinement (...) people obviously want to travel again," MSC spokesman Michele Curatolo told AFP, who assures us that the company has received "many calls" for resume its cruises.

"We are ready, we have worked very hard", assured the boss of MSC Cruises Gianni Onorato last week, during a press conference to present the new health protocols on board the group's ships.

MSC has suspended until October its other cruises in the rest of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Asia and northern Europe.

Costa Cruises for its part had said "to work on planning the gradual resumption of its cruises". Its website shows two departures, August 15 from Savona, and August 16 from Venice, which have not yet been confirmed.

The Mediterranean is the focus of many expectations because of the relative calm that Europe has enjoyed since the beginning of the summer in pandemic matters, with the reopening of the six main Greek ports on August 1.

Italy had suspended its cruises in March, as the epidemic of the new coronavirus exploded in the north of the country. The sector weighs 14.5 billion euros in Italy, for about 53,000 jobs, according to the International Association of Cruise Lines (CLIA).

During the pandemic, several international cruise ships with contaminated passengers on board or suspected of being infected, found themselves stranded at sea all over the planet, banned from docking by local authorities, from Japan, by the way. by California or Italy.

The entire sector was then singled out as particularly conducive to the spread of the virus, with its confined spaces and a rather elderly and vulnerable clientele.

The tragic saga of the Diamond Princess and its 4,000 people on board, which remained in quarantine throughout the month of February off the coast of Japan, with a number of contaminations which peaked at 700, has thus been remembered.

According to John Hopkins University, based on figures from the CLIA, more than 3,000 people have been infected and 73 have died on board 48 boats, until June 11.

Companies say today that they have worked hard on new health protocols: tests for passengers and crew, daily temperature measurements, maximum distance during shore excursions, table service rather than buffets. , etc ...

© 2020 AFP