MSC Cruises lays out plans for increased agent outreach

Posted on 7 April, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

By Tom Stieghorst

FORT LAUDERDALE — MSC Cruises unveiled several marketing initiatives under a new “Serving You” theme.

Rick Sasso, CEO of MSC Cruises USA, said at the Cruise3sixty conference that the line intends to emphasize the human connection in its dealings with travel agents. It is in the process of filling 22 new sales positions to extend outreach to agents.

RickSasso “There will be more people on the ground face to face to be the partners with the travel seller, so together we can create new business,” Sasso said.

He announced that marketing and sales vice president Ken Muscat had been promoted to executive vice president of sales, marketing, public relations and guest services, and that several other executives had been promoted to strengthen oversight.

MSC will hold a joint promotion with Fiat to give away a $21,000 Fiat convertible to a consumer and a travel agent. An entry for the drawing will be made for each booking on MSC Divina from April 4 to May 18, good on departures from Aug. 2 to Dec. 27. Winners will be announced around the year-end holidays.

Muscat said a new bus wrap advertisement has been installed for April on 14 buses running a freeway route between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The wrap includes a travel agent call to action.

Under the “Serving You” banner, MSC will launch a 20-city road show in May to talk to travel agents on their home ground. There is a tentative list of cities to be visited, but it could change, Muscat said.

He also said MSC will offer a new wedding program on MSC Divina that for the first time will enable legal weddings to be performed onboard or in a number of ports, including Miami, Cozumel, St. Maarten and Falmouth, Jamaica.

Muscat said details of the program, which launches Aug. 2, will be available in the next several weeks.

MSC denies accusations of ‘slave-like’ staff conditions

Posted on 7 April, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

MSC Cruises has rejected allegations by Brazilian police that staff were kept in “slave-like” conditions on its ship MSC Magnifica.

Brazilian officials said they “rescued” 11 crew members in the northeastern city of Salvador, where the ship was docked for the day on April 1.

They claimed staff were forced to work for up to 16 hours a day. Some were alleged to have been victims of sexual harassment, reported the BBC.

MSC said in a statement: “After reviewing thousands of pages of documentation and conducting hundreds of interviews with crew members, Labour Ministry inspectors went on board MSC Magnifica on April 1 and alleged irregularities in the working conditions of 13 crew members, and invited them to disembark.

“MSC Crociere is in full compliance with national and international labour regulations and is ready to cooperate with the authorities.”

The company said it had not received “any evidence or legal notification” from the Brazilian Labour Ministry.

The operation came at the end of a month-long investigation, following a tip-off from crew members on Magnifica.

The labour ministry identified 13 staff who had allegedly been submitted to slave-like conditions.

Two of them refused to leave the vessel and decided to carry on working, while the other 11 were taken to a hotel in Salvador.

MSC Cruises ships operating in Brazilian waters employ a total of 4,181 crew members, of whom 1,243 are Brazilians.

The line said its four ships operating in Brazil during the 2013-14 season had passed “intensive and repeated” inspections by the Brazilian Labour Ministry.

MSC to place two-ship order

Posted on 24 March, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

By Tom Stieghorst

STX France has signed a letter of intent to build two 167,000-gross ton ships for MSC Cruises that would be delivered in 2017 and 2019, plus options for two more.

The long-rumored order would expand MSC’s fleet from 12 to 16 if all four ships are built.

MSC Cruises USA’s president, Rick Sasso, said at the Cruise Shipping Miami conference earlier this month that MSC was ready to increase its North American presence from a single year-round ship if an order was made.

A statement from the two companies said the contract will be binding “when the financial package is secured.”

The companies did not give a value for the order, but said the two ships would provide 16 million working hours for STX France and its subcontractors. STX France genial manager Laurent Castaing said a competitiveness agreement signed with trade unions was “decisive” in reaching the letter of intent to build the ships.

Each new ship will have 2,250 passenger cabins for a double-occupancy capacity of 4,500, but MSC put the ship’s capacity at 5,700 passengers. The ships “will be able to call in most of the ports and destinations on earth, without compromise,” MSC said,

MSC President Gianni Oronato said the ships will boast “new panoramic spaces, a bigger theater and a spectacular amusement park connected to an outdoor aqua park as well as a two-deck inside promenade.”

The MSC ships will have specially designed cabins for families and an extended Yacht Club luxury area on each vessel.

Castaing said negotiations for the ships were particularly challenging “in light of today’s global competitive landscape in the shipbuilding industry.”

The main creditor for the troubled Korean company that owns STX Europe said recently it would like to divest the European asset by June.