The Government of Russia are planning to Charter a Cruise Ship to support the accommodation needs for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. We understand that the successful company will be Costa Crociere from Italy.
In essence the state-owned Rosmorport will finance the Charter and it has already signed a deal one of the Mega Ships in the Costa Crociere fleet for the provision of accommodation specifically for visitors coming to the Winter Olympics, where the host city will be Sochi located in the north eastern part of the black sea. Costa Crociere successfully won the bid in an open tender process.
The much awaited "Sochi Winter Games" will be held from 7th to 23rd February 2014. This will be the second major recent sporting event Russia is hosting, following the recent 9-day Athletic World Championships that just passed, which was the biggest international sports event that post-Soviet Russia has hosted. The Athletic World Championships involved nearly 2,000 track and field athletes and was monitored by many as an unofficial indicator of how well Russia will perform at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
By all accounts there were challenges at the Athletic World Championships such as:
- Bus drivers that transported the athletes and fans which got lost.
- Spectators who muddled their way to the stadium on a raw path through the trees.
- Controversy over the new anti-gay law implemented by Russia (bad timing).
At least it's good news for Costa that deserve a break and some positive news.
