More than 100 Ingenico S.A. point-of-sale terminals are afloat on 14 cruise ships operated by Costa Cruises as part of an initiative to enable travelers to use a “Costa Card” for their onboard purchases, Ingenico recently announced.
Travelers visit an onboard kiosk, which uses an Ingenico i6780 terminal, to sign up for the card, which they link to a credit card. Travelers swipe their Costa Cards at the terminals for onboard purchases, and Costa Cruises provides them with a detailed purchase statement on the last day of their cruise.
Travelers also may use the Costa Card as a free prepaid card by using a credit card to load funds into an account the card can access, Ingenico says.
Using a Costa Card should speed up onboard transactions, Ingenico says. Cruise ship travelers typically must place a cash deposit with a ship’s purser to purchase items onboard. The kiosk enables travelers to set up their Costa Cards without needing large amounts of cash, a Costa Cruises spokesperson says.
The service, which Ingenico calls a self-service credit card-registration system, enables travelers to set up their Costa Cards without providing a credit card to a purser. Ingenico anticipates two other ships under construction for Costa Cruises also will use the system.
Ingenico, which would not disclose the value of the deal, says Costa Cruises is the first company to use its terminals on a ship. Other transportation operators, such as Ireland-based Ryanair and RATP, a France-based rail operator, use the terminals for unattended transactions, Ingenico says.
In 2009, Italy-based Costa Cruises said more than 1.3 million passengers sailed on its cruises.
