STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Floating G8 resort awaits world's most powerful By Nelson Graves GENOA, Italy, July 16 (Reuters) - Riots or no riots, the world's most powerful men will be floating in the lap of luxury when they come to this week's Group of Eight summit in the ancient port city of Genoa. Surrounded by a cordon of 15,000 security forces, all of the G8 leaders except U.S. President George W. Bush will sleep on the spanking new cruise liner European Vision, moored alongside a renovated wharf in the semi-circular Genoa harbour. Bush is not snubbing his counterparts. But security concerns, heightened by the probability of clashes between demonstrators and police, dictate that he sleep elsewhere, possibly at U.S. Camp Darby military base in Livorno, a helicopter ride to the southeast. The precise spot where he will stay is being kept secret. When the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia walk the gangplank onto the European Vision on the first day of the three-day summit on Friday, they will board a 300 million euro ($250 million), 58,600-tonne floating holiday resort that offers almost every luxury imagination can devise. The G8 leaders will presumably not have time, but if they did they could hit golf balls, run in the gym, take a Turkish bath, shop at Givenchy, unwind in an English pub and then retire to the cigar and brandy room. There's also a basketball court, mini golf, climbing wall or Internet cafe with constant satellite connections to the Web. And if the leaders drop their currency at the roulette wheel, there is always the ATM machine. ALL PASSENGERS EQUAL? All of this is owned by Festival Cruises, whose chairman George Poulides was remarkably at ease only days before the mighty come on board his ship. "We are used to it," Poulides told Reuters, relaxing in one of the ship's numerous lounges. "We carry passengers. There is no difference between our passengers and our delegations. We consider our passengers all equally important." Italy's security forces do not see it quite that way. They took over the ship on July 14 after it finished its second seven-day Mediterranean cruise in June and docked in Genoa's harbour, ringed in the distance by green hills. Now there are metal detectors at the end of the gangplank, sniffer dogs and agents both in and out of uniform. While the leaders, including Italy's new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sleep on board the vessel, security forces will monitor it above and below water in case of attack. SHIPS CREATE DEMAND The European Vision is the latest and biggest cruise liner in Festival's fleet of five, measuring 251 metres long and 28.8 metres wide. The top deck -- the ship's 13th -- towers 46 metres above the water line. It flies the Italian flag and can carry 1,566 passengers and 711 crew who speak English as the official language -- and many others. Born in Athens of a French mother and Greek father, 54-year-old Poulides was educated in England and has lived in Italy, France and Switzerland. He founded his company in 1986 and along with his co-owners, Greece's Sarantitis family, will see its 2000 turnover of 210 million euros nearly double by next year with the addition of two new liners, with two more 1,200-berth ships planned by 2005. Why was he so confident of growth in this luxury industry when the world economy was in a slowdown? The United States, he said, had 110 liners for a population of 280 million. Europe had only six ships and another six on order for nearly 300 million people. "It's the ships that created demand in the U.S.," he says. "There were not seven million Americans queuing up on the docks of Miami waiting for the ships. So it's the ships that are going to bring the passengers in Europe." A FEW ANGRY PASSENGERS Festival's main competitor is Costa Cruises, also based in Genoa. "But there is room in Europe for both of us, because Europe is a completely untapped market," he said. "Only less than one percent of the European population has cruised, and that is approximately one million people. If you put the American percentages, the equivalent in Europe is 8.5 million cruise passengers. Can you imagine from less than a million to go to 8.5 million? You can't do it, there are no ships." Poulides said he had "a few angry passengers" after he accepted the Italian government's request for three of his ships for the summit -- two others will host official delegations -- and cancelled two cruises. Was it a good business decision? "Let's put it this way. When the government of Italy asks you to give a ship for the G8, you cannot very easily say no." ($1-1.166 Euro) 05:06 07-16-01 ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
