Tag Archives: tunisia

MSC Cruises seals joint venture deal for Tunisian port operator

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MSC Splendida in La Goulette taken in 2010, Photo credit Dave Jones

A joint venture involving MSC Cruises has finalised the takeover of the operator of the cruise port for Tunis.

The European cruise line teamed up with independent cruise ports owner Global Ports Holding last year to bid to run La Goulette.

The deal to acquire Goulette Shipping Cruise, the company that runs the cruise terminal at the Tunisian port, has now been completed for an undisclosed sum.

The concession to operate the cruise port was awarded to Goulette Shipping Cruise in 2006 on a 30-year basis, with a right to extend the term for an additional 20 years.

Cruise ship calls into the port declined for four years after the terrorist attack on the Bardo Museum in the Tunisian capital in 2015, which killed 22 tourists.

Regular stops in the port resumed in November with at least ten ships expected this year and more forecast in 2021.

Global Ports Holding said La Goulette handled around 900,000 passengers in 2010 and an average if 441,000 a year between 2011-14.

However, the company admitted that “passenger volumes have been low in recent years”.

MSC to suspend Tunisia calls for winter season

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MSC Cruises said the recent declaration of a state of emergency in Tunisia has led it to suspend calls there for the 2015-16 winter season.

The line said its previously scheduled calls at La Goulette from Nov. 15 to April 23 on the MSC Prezisosa will be replaced by calls in Malta.

The MSC Magnifica and MSC Poesia during their voyages from Venice to Santos in Brazil and Buenos Aires in Argentina, respectively, in November and December 2015 will spend a full day in Alicante, Spain, instead of La Goulette/Tunis, MSC said.

Authorities in Tunisia declared the state of emergency after two terrorist attacks on tourists there in the past four months.

MSC Cruises: Tunis attack hasn’t badly hurt business

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Photo by Dave Jones; MSC Splendida in Tunis Port

NEW YORK — The attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia that killed 17 cruise passengers on excursion has not had a major impact on bookings at MSC Cruises, said MSC Cruises USA chief Rick Sasso.

“We had very few cancellations,” he said.

The MSC Splendida and the Costa Fascinosa had passengers on excursions to the Bardo on March 17 when gunmen opened fire at the site, killing 12 MSC and five Costa passengers.

Both companies have since dropped calls in Tunis. Sasso said the line was able to “augment” its itineraries with other calls. (The Splendida is now operating in northern Europe.) He said a few of the cancellations MSC received were from passengers who wanted to visit Tunis.

“That was a great port of call,” he said. “Tunisia was very safe, very cultural.”

MSC continues to base representatives in Tunis to work with passengers or families there; some injured passengers are still in the city, Sasso said.

He said that MSC had also reached out to passengers indirectly impacted by the attacks — for example, people on a coach that were not at the museum when the attack occurred.

“We’ve reached out to them and offered support,” he said. “We’re helping them if they need help to deal with the psychological trauma.”

In a conference call with analysts earlier this month, Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said that incidents like this “affects the psychology of travel.”Carnival Corp. owns Costa Cruises.

“We will just have to monitor and see what the long-term effects are,” he said.

Donald said that the Tunis calls were 2% of the company’s total calls.