«Venice is and must remain a port city. But it is a delicate city that must live in balance. This is why we are in favor of limitations that safeguard the environment.” Inti Ligabue, at the top of Ligabue spa, a Venetian company among the best known in the world in maritime supplies and services, is convinced of this. To the point that next year, five years after the last time, the Hamburg cruise ship (144 meters long, just over 20 meters wide) of the Plantours company, controlled since 2006 by the Ligabue group, will arrive in the lagoon. which therefore strengthens its presence and investments in the cruise sector.
Yesterday, in fact, Inti Ligabue inaugurated the new Plantours headquarters in Hamburg (previously it was in Bremen) as part of the celebrations for the 35 years of the German company. Plantours, an ocean and river cruise company, joined the Ligabue Group in 2006. Of the seven ships operated by Plantours, 4 make up the fleet managed by the Ligabue Group, which includes the M/S Hamburg and the river ships Lady Cristina, Lady Diletta – four stars plus launched in 2020 by Ligabue itself, which thus also became the shipowner – and the ship San Souci. Hamburg itself will return to Venice in April next year. In fact, she will be moored in the docks of Porto Marghera, a short distance from the Ligabue warehouses in San Basilio. A homecoming.
After celebrating 100 years of existence in 2019, in 2020 Ligabue, alongside the directly managed cruise ships, christened the river ship Lady Diletta, built for the group and destined for the German cruise company Plantours Kreutzfahrten, thus becoming shipowner as well as maritime travel retail operator. «Our numbers are growing», concludes the CEO, «our 2024 goal is to close with a turnover of 450 million». —
