The Costa Concordia belonged to a Carnival subsidiary, and another company ship, the Carnival Triump

Since the Costa Concordia ran aground off Italy in January 2012, killing 32 people, the industry has been besieged by mechanical failures, disease outbreaks, congressional scrutiny and a recent class-action suit filed by passengers on the Carnival Triumph, which was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for days.
Florida ports, budget accommodation london the foundation of the industry, are growing as well. Port Canaveral, budget accommodation london for example, is building a new terminal and this month was named the new home for the Norwegian Spirit ship run by Norwegian Cruise Line.
In a recent letter to shareholders, Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corp., acknowledged the problems: 2013 was clearly a challenging year for our company, he wrote. But he added that several initiatives, including plans to expand into the Asian market and to launch eight new ships through 2016, had put the company on a good course.
budget accommodation london The Costa Concordia belonged to a Carnival subsidiary, and another company ship, the Carnival Triumph, budget accommodation london made headlines last year when it was stranded for days in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing passengers to deal with unsanitary conditions, including backed-up toilets.
Last year, lawmakers led by U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced legislation that took aim at how cruise companies treat their passengers as well as the industry s limited U.S. tax obligations.
Cruise lines largely avoid U.S. taxes by organizing themselves as foreign corporations and by registering their ships overseas. This means market leaders Carnival and Royal Caribbean paid an effective worldwide tax rate of only 1.3 percent on their profits during the past seven years, according to a summary of the Rockefeller bill released last summer.
His bill would eliminate a tax exemption for the industry and target income derived from cruise passengers going through U.S. ports. budget accommodation london The broader measure would make available more information about alleged crimes committed aboard cruise ships and give more oversight power to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Meanwhile, critics of the cruise business said the industry while generally opposing new regulations budget accommodation london has taken specific aim at one section of the overhaul package: a provision that would require the industry to separately disclose the number of crimes or alleged crimes committed against minors.
When asked about that provision, an official with the Cruise Lines International Association, the main industry booster group, said CLIA had not stated publicly a position on that section. But CLIA opposes the bill as a whole, he said, because it was already budget accommodation london covered by steps the industry has taken to address concerns about crime, transparency and passenger budget accommodation london rights.