MARKETING MIX: P&O finds a port in PR storm.(P and O Cruises Ltd.; cruise ship mystery illness)(Brief Article)

An amusing tale reaches Mix concerning David Dingle, managing director of P&O Cruises UK, the owner of the unlucky cruise ship Aurora.

Readers will no doubt be familiar with Aurora's current travails, having featured prominently in the national news as it sailed halfway around Europe's coasts, hunting a willing port to unload hundreds of ailing passengers.

As a mystery stomach bug swept the luxury liner, passengers were confined to their cabins and the Spanish government closed its border with Gibraltar to prevent cruisers being discharged there.

So what of Mr Dingle? By an unfortunate coincidence, he was in Palma for the 2003 ABTA Convention. Amid …