The Port of Valletta today welcomed the first call of MSC Grandiosa as a ceremony was held on MSC’s newest ship to commemorate her maiden call.
Stephen Xuereb, Valletta Cruise Port’s CEO and Global Ports Holding COO, said: “We are proud to welcome MSC Grandiosa on her maiden call to Valletta Cruise Port and to be hosting her on another five calls during this year as part of her inaugural season. Next year she will call Malta on another 43 occasions. On behalf of both Valletta Cruise Port and Global Ports Holding, we congratulate MSC Cruises on their achievements and look forward to many more years of fruitful joint cooperation and partnerships.”
Angelo Capurro, MSC Cruises’ Sales Executive Director, said: “Our cruise ships have served Malta for over 20 years, bringing hundreds of thousands of tourists to its shores. Today, we are proud to bring our latest and most innovative cruise ship to Valletta, to her port of registry, which she will regularly visit for the next 12 months. We look forward to bringing many more of our guests to this beautiful island in years to come, in partnership with Malta and its people.
The MSC Grandiosa will be deployed in the Western Mediterranean for the next 12 months before she is deployed to South America for the winter 2020 season.
MSC Cruises’ UK boss says the line is “very close” to fulfilling a long-term ambition to have a 10% share of the UK cruise market.
In late 2017, the line pledged to one-day sell one in every ten cruises taken by the UK and become “a leading international player” within five years.
Antonio Paradiso, the line’s the UK and Ireland managing director said MSC currently has 7.9% of the market but believes a lengthened MSC Magnifica would add a further 90,000 berths to the market in 2021.
Speaking on new Meraviglia-Plus class ship MSC Grandiosa in Southampton, Paradiso said: “I am really confident that by 2022, MSC will be the number one international cruise line in this country. We are getting very close to that.
“We’re are at about 7.9%, so we’re getting there. A big boost will be when MSC Magnifica will sail out of Southampton [in summer 2021].”
Southampton will be MSC Magnifica’s only embarkation port when it is based in the UK in summer 2021.
Paradiso said: “It is a great opportunity for the travel agents. [Magnifica] alone will boost our production by 90,000 passengers.”
The line also has plans to further bolster its growing sales team in 2020. Paradiso said he would recruit for a strategic account manager – a new role – early next year.
“The strategic account manager will help [head of retail] Andrea Stafford strengthen the relationship with all the head offices in the UK and some important key accounts,” he said.
Paradiso said the sales team expansion goes “hand in hand” with the growth the line was experiencing in the UK.
MSC launched MSC Bellissima earlier this year. MSC Grandiosa is 16 metres longer than the Meraviglia-class ship.
On Grandiosa, the line has exhibited an art collection on a ship for the first time, expanded its French Bistrot L’Atelier Bistrot and launched two exclusive Cirque du Soleil shows onboard.
The line has welcomed around 4,200 UK agents across its fleet since the launch of MSC Bellissima in Southampton in March this year.
Ship visits would be arranged when MSC ships called in the UK and Ireland, said Paradiso, who added: “One thing we do very successfully is fam trips every year which are normally fly-and-cruise out of Barcelona or Rome which allow agents to spend time onboard.
“The ex-UK sailings represent a good portion of our business. However, the Mediterranean is still the number one destination for the UK market.
“It is important that agents get to experience the ships that we have in the Med.”
From 2023, the line will launch four 64,000-ton luxury vessels which have yet to be named. Paradiso said the name would be announced between March and April next year.
“The first step would be to announce the brand,” he said. “We will disclose a bit more information about the luxury ships that we are building. The UK will be one of the first countries in the world to go on sale.”
The readjustment period for the Chinese cruise market is coming to an abrupt end as capacity will be up for the first time in two years in 2020, according to the 2020 China Cruise Market Report by Cruise Industry News.
Annualized capacity with new ships from Costa Crociere and Royal Caribbean International are pushing market capacity, while full-year operations from the Piano Land will also contribute as will the 4,500-guest MSC Bellissima.
Following year-after-year of rapid growth, China saw its cruise supply drop due to an ongoing price war in 2018, as ships and operators left the market. This self-described readjustment period continued into 2019 and is now subsiding with more ships, more berths and more capacity in the market for 2020.
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