A summer with unprecedented peaks in demand. A boom of Reservations out of the 19 ships in the fleet despite “early booking close to zero” for the summer which this year lasted until September-October. And a stated objective: “We want to become the first travel agency in Italy, and not just the first cruise line”.
Thus the general manager of MSC Cruises Leonard Massa opens the meeting with the press that took place during Ttg Travel Experience. “There was a wave of volumes between April and October, with 80,000 passengers per week traveling around the world, but in terms of marginality we are still far from 2019. 2023 will be a year of transition: there are not the same conditions as before the Covid, but the increase in the fleet leads us to larger volumes. We will sacrifice margins less than in 2022. The challenge lies in anticipating bookings, which we will continue to push in a targeted manner. It’s the big one effort that our whole industry has to do. THE pricesdespite the expensive energy, they will be lower than or equal to those of 2019”.
Leonardo Massa leaves here to build the futurewhich is expressed above all in the launch of three new ships in eight months, with an “investment of approximately 3 billion euros, unprecedented in the world of tourism; 7,500 new cabins on the market and, from May 2023, 15,000 additional customers every week”.
The next appointments with me baptisms are: November 13 in Doha, Qatar, for the Msc World Europe; December 7 in New York for the Msc Seascape; May 2023 for the Msc Euribia.
WINTER. For the season Winter 2022-2023 there will be three ships in the Mediterranean for itineraries of 7, 10 and 11 nights, a ship in the Red Sea that reaches Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, cruises in the United Arab Emirates and Oman , in Northern Europe, in the Caribbean and the French West Indies, South America, South Africa and two world tours departing from Genoa in January for 118 days.
SUMMER 2023. More than 140 destinations, 40 countries and 22 ships – thanks to new entries in the fleet – for the summer of 2023, where the Mediterranean will be the protagonist. Among the novelties, the Msc Meraviglia based in New York from April, nine-night cruises from Trieste and Bari to Istanbulthe route season in Tunisia, cruises from Civitavecchia and Sicily to the Greek Islands, as well as the Caribbean all year round. “Today we are at a starting point, not an end point. And for next summer let’s not forget the debut of MSC Group’s new luxury brand, Explore Travels», recalls the general manager.
Further away bellows One of the growth drivers is the combined programming with Going, the Group’s bridgehead, with Going4Cruise packages, a new product on the shelves for travel agencies.
TRAVEL AGENCY. Promotions, collaborations and new destinations. These are the keys to anticipating the booking front. MSC Cruises has set up promo for the short, short and medium term already for next summer and with travel agencies it is also pushing on groups, fundamental for booking in advance.
During the first 285 days of the current year, the company continued to work on strengthening ties with report agency with 125 different appointments which led to meeting more than 7,000 travel agents around Italy.
“The first face-to-face meeting with the agents took place in Genoa aboard MSC Fantasia in February – he says Luca Valentini, commercial director of Msc Cruises – Since then, with an average of one appointment every 2 days, we have scheduled a series of appointments, on the boats and on land, without interruption between fam trips, roadshows, lunches, dinners and parties on the beach. This result has been achieved thanks to the company’s extensive presence throughout the country with ships present in 15 Italian ports and the work carried out by our sales force”.
The ships they were the protagonists of these meetings 64 times; the remaining 61 events were staged ashore around Italy.
“The success of bookings recorded this summer, the registration of those arriving for winter 22/23, as well as the excellent signs for the summer 2023 season, confirm that our efforts to be back immediately to meet the live travel agents have certainly served to convey in the right way the great confidence that we have for the future – emphasizes Fabio Candiani, Commercial Director of MSC Cruises – The program of appointments will continue at the same pace in the months to come, with the aim of publicizing the details of the rich winter and summer programming and, of course, the new products to come”.
MSC Cruises is “for agents a flagship product whose duration can vary from 1 to 115 nights, reaching all types of target in a transversal way not only in tourism, but also in leisure. It goes from the weekend on board to the round the world,” concludes Valentini.
