Your Cruise Your Way Cruise Blog

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that my good friend, Maurice Zarmati has been named president and CEO of Costa Cruise Lines - North America. Maurice is currently vice president of sales for Carnival Cruise Lines, will not assume his new role until March 31, 2008. A long standing icon at Carnival Cruise Line and industry executive, Zarmati has been with Carnival Cruise Lines since 1972, leading one of the largest and most successful sales teams in North America. This is the press release from the PRNewswire.

In his new role as president and CEO of Costa Cruise Lines - North
America, Zarmati will report directly to Gianni Onorato, president of Costa
Crociere, and will be responsible for all sales and marketing efforts for
Costa’s North and Central American regions. This includes sales
development, marketing, revenue management, finance, human resources and
passenger services. In the interim before Zarmati begins his position, Joni
L. Rein, vice president of sales development and Ruben Perez, vice
president of passenger services, will oversee all main functionalities of
the Costa North America office.

“Maurice is well known and respected throughout the cruise industry for
his numerous accomplishments and successes, so naturally we’re thrilled to
have him lead up the efforts for our North and Central American markets,
which are key to the continued growth and success of the overall Costa
Crociere brand,” said Onorato. “Maurice brings nearly four decades of
experience to the role, having led one of the biggest and best sales teams
in North America with our sister company, Carnival Cruise Lines. We look
forward to welcoming him to the Costa family in the next month.”

Costa Cruises is Italy’s and Europe’s number one cruise vacation line.
For the past 60 years its ships have sailed around the world, offering the
best in Italian style, hospitality and cuisine and providing a dream
vacation with the utmost in terms of fun and relaxation. In 2007 over 1.1
million Guests chose to cruise with Costa, a record for the European cruise
industry. The Company’s 12 fleet members, each with her own distinctive
characteristics and unique style, all fly the Italian flag and sail to 250
destinations in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Baltic Sea, the
Caribbean, South America, the United Arab Emirates, the Far East and the
Indian Ocean. Five more vessels have been commissioned and will enter
service by 2012. Costa Cruises has been certified by RINA (Italian Shipping
Register) with the BEST4, an integrated system of voluntary certification
of corporate compliance with the highest standards governing social
accountability (SA 8000, issued in 2001), environment (UNI EN ISO 14001,
1996), safety (OHSAS 18001, 1999) and quality (UNI EN ISO 9001, 2000). All
Costa’s ships have been awarded RINA’s voluntary “Green Star” notation
based on the highest environmental protection standards. Costa Cruises is
also an official partner of the WWF for the protection of the marine
ecoregions of the Mediterranean, the Greater Antilles and Brazil.