Concordia disaster focuses attention on how cruise industry operates - CNN.com: "Ross Klein, a Newfoundland professor, has written four books on the cruise industry and maintains a database online. At the congressional hearings in March, he told the Senate committee there were more than a dozen incidents of passenger ships sinking and 99 ships running aground between 1973 and 2011. Klein also testified that 79 ships experienced fires between 1990 and 2011. Even so, given the rapid expansion of the industry, the number of fatalities has been low. And cruising remains popular. The industry is now worth $25 billion a year. Most of its customers are Americans, with 13 million U.S. bookings in 2011. The industry also is tapping into new markets, especially in Asia."
'via Blog this'
The cruise industry makes it safe to ride the waves of the world... but pay very little tax to its benefactors: the US, the Coast Guard, and " ... they don't pay taxes that will help with these 20 federal agencies that are watching over them in various ways and whose services they use, or might use," ... how is that a good thing?
The recent capsizing and sinking of the Costa Concordia raises a thousand questions but it is all rhetoric. Most cruising standards proposed by the International Maritime Organization are "voluntary."
Cruise ship companies move their flags to the cheapest countries providing "Cheap registration fees, low or no taxes and freedom to employ cheap labor are the motivating factors behind a ship owner's decision to 'flag out.'"
The sinking of the Costa Concordia seems to be a tiny blip on the map for the cruise industry. I won't get on one of those Titanic's any time soon.
With 13 million U.S. bookings in 2011, hardly anyone notices the sinking ships out there.
______________Reference
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/04/world/europe/costa-concordia/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9024768/Costa-Concordia-investigators-probe-role-of-young-Moldovan-woman-on-cruise-ship.html
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