Few Americans know Costa Concordia operator

PARSIPPANY, N.J., March 1 (UPI) -- More than a third of Americans said they did not know which cruise line was involved in the Costa Concordia shipwreck in Italy, a poll indicated.

The Ipsos Loyalty poll found 35 percent said they did not know the ship was operated by Costa Cruises despite widespread media coverage of the Jan. 13 disaster in which 25 people have been confirmed dead.

Only 32 percent said they associated the ship with Costa Cruises and 22 percent associated it with Costa's parent company, Carnival Cruise Lines, an Ipsos news release said.

The poll also found the Concordia accident apparently has had little impact on Americans' plans to book a cruise -- 13 percent said they plan to book in the next year -- while 10 percent said they have cruised in the past two years.

Among those who indicated they probably would not or definitely would not plan a cruise in the next year -- 67 percent -- one in six said their decision was because of the Concordia disaster.

The Costa Concordia slammed into a rock formation off Italy's Tuscan coast with 4,200 passengers and crew aboard. Francesco Schettino, the captain who left the ship before many of the passengers, is under house arrest at his home near Naples on charges of abandoning ship and multiple counts of manslaughter. He has denied the allegations.

Ipsos said it conducted online interviews Feb. 8-15 with 18,358 U.S. residents age 18 or older. Ipsos did not give a margin of error.