Tag Archives: MSC

MSC Eyes Larger Piece of North American Market Pie

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MSC Seaside Homeport in Miami.

Gianni Onorato is helping drive MSC Cruises’ ambitious growth plan, covering just about the entire world in 2018 and beyond.

Miami will play an increasingly important role as the company pushes its way into the North American market, part of a strategic long-term plan, according to Onorato, CEO of the cruise brand.

Come winter 2019, the MSC Divina, Seaside and Meraviglia will offer Caribbean itineraries from PortMiami.

“It started with the MSC Divina, that was the biggest change,” Onorato told Cruise Industry News. “It was the first time we broke with the legacy of just having a winter ship (in North America) occasionally.”

With the company hitting its goal to become the largest single brand in Europe, it opened up more assets to be moved into the North American market, starting with the Divina on a year-round basis, which has now been joined by the Seaside.

“Even with the Divina, Seaside and Meraviglia compared to the size of the North American market, this is a little drop,” he said.

The MSC Seaside

“We will reach a 4 to 5 percent market share here. It is a start in the most mature market in the world. It has been a process that has been planned and now we’re in the implementation phase.”

With the Divina and Seaside based in Miami come 2020, MSC plans to rotate the Meraviglia north for a summer season sailing from Manhattan.

“We are looking at New York for summer 2020 with the Meraviglia,” Onorato said. “That is why we are adding a sort of presentation of the ship with a number of cruises in 2019. We are preparing to have the Meraviglia out of New York in 2020.”

It differs from previous attempts to sail out of New York by the company and its European competitors.

Onorato noted the hardware will help drive demand, calling the Meraviglia a newbuild that is very competitive.

“The North American trade and distribution also knows our brand better now. The timing is right because the market is looking for something new and different, which we offer.”

Come 2022, Onorato sees MSC as a key player in North American, although not at the level of the other main North American brands.

“We will have our piece of the cake,” he added.

Cruise ‘breaking through glass ceiling’ as it goes mainstream

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The cruise industry is “breaking through the glass ceiling” and is finally being recognised as a mainstream holiday.

David Dingle, Clia Europe’s deputy chair, also said the number of UK cruise passengers will hit two million by 2020.

He said: “We are getting to that two million figure. We hit 1.9 million passengers in 2016, so I definitely think we will hit two million by 2020.

“We are really breaking through the glass ceiling. I think we are at the stage where cruising is being recognised as a mainstream holiday.

“Whether we see the same year on year growth yield as we did this year that will unfold, but at the moment we are seeing further growth.”

The cruise industry is undergoing a “significant” new shipbuilding programme following the financial slump in 2008.

“During that period there has been a lag in the introduction of new capacity,” Dingle said. “So as much as anything we are going through a catching up exercise.”

There are 72 ships on order all of which are set to be built before 2025. The value of that order is $50billion.

All the major lines, including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises and Carnival, have ships launching in 2018.

Marella and AIDA Cruises, Germany’s largest line, also have new vessels due to launch.

“The year of 2017 has been a very good year for yield growth but whether we can have that much growth year on year remains to be seen,” Dingle added. “At the moment they are good indicators.”

Dingle pointed to the role of the trade press in helping to boost the cruise sector and also highlighted how comedian Rob Brydon might not have fronted a P&O Cruises television advertisement campaign “five or 10 years ago”.

Port of Kiel chalks up 350th call by an MSC cruise ship

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Port of Kiel chalks up 350th call by an MSC cruise ship

The port’s cruise shipping director Nicole Claus welcomed the ship’s captain Guiseppe Galano

MSC Fantasia arrived at the Port of Kiel’s Ostseekai berth from St Petersburg in Russia on 2 September, marking MSC Cruises’ 350th visit to the German port.

To mark the anniversary, the port’s cruise shipping director Nicole Claus welcomed the ship’s captain Guiseppe Galano. Together, Galano and Claus unveiled a bronze plaque on Kiel’s Cruise Ship Walk of Fame, which honours shipping companies and events that are of special significance for Kiel as a cruise shipping location.

MSC’s cruise ships have been regularly calling at the port of Kiel for twelve years, after the first vessel visited on 4 September 2005. The company began using Kiel as a base port in 2006 and since then, the city has been a constituent part of the company’s northern Europe route planning. To date, nine different MSC cruise ships have visited Kiel, while 1.3 million passengers have embarked or disembarked from an MSC cruise ship in the city.

“With 350 visits to the port under its belt, MSC is the cruise shipping company which has been our most frequent caller to date,” said Claus.

MSC Fantasia has already undertaken 18 cruises from Kiel this season. Three more are to follow up to the season finale on 16 September, when the ship heads for the Mediterranean. These northern Europe cruises take guests to Baltic destinations including Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; Helsinki, Finland; St Petersburg. The ship also sails from Kiel to Copenhagen and the Norwegian fjords in Geiranger, Flåm and Stavanger.

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MSC and Mein Schiff in the Port of Kiel.

International cruise ship passengers who board in Copenhagen can enjoy day excursions ashore from the port of Kiel into the surrounding region and to the Hanse city of Lübeck and the north German metropolis of Hamburg.

“Because of its geographical location, Kiel is particularly attractive as the starting point for so-called butterfly cruises,” said Claus. “The combination of Baltic and Norwegian routes is a very interesting option.”

This year, Kiel will host 142 calls from 28 different ships, which will bring around half a million cruise ship passengers to the port. In addition, about 1.6 million ferry passengers will pass through the port.