Achille Lauro Will Cruise New Route
The owners of the cruise liner Achille Lauro, hijacked last year by Palestinian guerrillas, are changing the ship’s route because of recent events in the Mediterranean, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
The spokesman said the new route, to be introduced at the end of this month, will take the Italian liner farther west than before, to the Spanish ports of Barcelona, Malaga and Cadiz, Lisbon in Portugal and Tangier in Morocco before returning to Genoa, Italy.
In an apparent reference to military clashes between Libya and the United States last month, the spokesman said that owners of the Lauro fleet decided to alter the itinerary in view of “the political and military situation in the Mediterranean.”
He said the company noticed a fall in bookings for the cruise, reflecting a general trend in the Italian tourist market, and hoped the new route would attract more customers. He said a drop in bookings has been particularly marked among American tourists.
The Achille Lauro’s previous route included stops at Alexandria and Port Said in Egypt, Ashdod in Israel and Piraeus in Greece.
It was during one of these cruises in October last year that Palestinian guerrillas hijacked the liner and killed an American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer.
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