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MSC’s ambitious growth plan

MSC

MSC Cruises executive director UK and Ireland Giles Hawke joined the Mediterranean specialist cruise line two years ago and looks forward to seeing the fleet double its capacity by 2017

I left Carnival Cruise Lines after 11 years, knowing MSC had ambitious growth plans, so I am really excited that just two years into the job the expansion of the MSC fleet is on schedule, new staff are being brought in and new itineraries have been introduced with more planned.

We have 12 ships and by 2020 it is highly likely we will have our doubled passenger-carrying capacity. We’ve even signed a contract Cirque du Soleil to create unique live entertainment shows aboard our new cruise ships. Here’s an update on our latest news:

MSC MERAVIGILIA

MSC MeravigliaTwo prototype ships are on order and the first, 5,700-passenger MSC Meraviglia, will debut in June 2017 and sail in the Western Mediterranean. She will have three homeports; Genoa, Marseille and Barcelona and cruises are already on sale. Mervaigilia, is case you were wondering means wonder!

MSC Meraviglia is being built in STX shipyard in Saint Nazaire, France and I expect the innovative new family accommodation to be snapped up. The Cluster cabins are for large families of up to 10 people and they will have a villa-style feel with two or three cabins but with their own separate entrance.

We are seeing more and more threegeneration groups; grandparents, children and grandchildren travelling together and early demand is showing these cabins capture the imagination.

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL MSC

Meraviglia will become the first cruise ship feature a custom entertainment lounge designed in partnership with Cirque du Soleil to create a unique experience at sea.

There will be two performances a night, six nights a week, in a purpose-built lounge which will include a Ronnie Scott’sstyle bar. It is a big space with 450 seats and 200 dining seats, all being being designed in conjunction with Cirque du Soleil and we expect this spectacular entertainment to be extended to MSC Meraviglia’s three sister ships when they launch in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

MSC SEASIDE

Two Seaside Class ships, each with 2,070 cabins, are also on order plus there are three more options if we wish to take them. They are due to be in service from December 2017 and 2018; the first, MSC Seaside, will have a Miami South Beachstyle look and feel quite different to what anyone else is doing.MSC Seaside

She will sail out of Miami and is being designed, as the name implies, as an outdoor ship with a big wraparound area on Deck 7. We foresee passengers spending a lot of outside time on deck and we want to give passengers the opportunity to feel closer to the sea.

There will be a big swimming pool on the aft with wide decks on both sides and the back plus there will be a lift to take guests directly from Deck 7 to the aquapark on the top outside deck so passengers can easily go between the two without the lift stopping at every deck on the way.

This new-style ship is the brainchild of our executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago. He is inspirational and has spent a lot of time looking at the hotel world as much as what happens in the cruise world to keep an eye on themes and what people enjoy as well as considering customer feedback. The intention and desire is to create something new and very different.”

APPEALING TO UK MARKET

The UK is a massive cruising nation and although in terms of passengers we were overtaken in 2014 by Germany, I believe 2015 will have seen us bounce back. MSC’s new tonnage means we will increase our attractiveness to British consumers and it will give us more brand awareness and recognition. Over the years MSC had been sold mainly on price as we had not done a huge amount of work investing in our brand with thought to British passengers. One of the ways of attracting passengers is by having a price point that makes people think ‘well I haven’t really heard of them but I will give them a try’ but what we find is people get on board and say ‘Wow this is an amazing’.

When I first joined the company I went on MSC Splendida and I was surprised at the quality of the interior, design, feel, level of service and standard of food.

MEDITERRANEAN FLAIR

MSC customers come from all over the world. We have offices in 40 countries and on an average cruise there are up to 50 nationalities on board so we try to make our ships appeal to as broad a market as possible.

People who have a cosmopolitan outlook on life really love MSC cruises but those who want a British experience with other Brits and British food and entertainment will be disappointed.

We are not a British cruise line. We don’t want to be or pretend to be – we have a Mediterranean flair that makes us stand out and be different.

TRAVEL AGENTS

We have made some real, positive changes in the UK; we’ve done a lot of work from a public relations’ perspective, getting MSC cruises more visible, more known and more ‘out there’ as a brand. Over the last two years we have also done a huge amount of work with travel agents on MSC Opera, MSC Magnificia and MSC Splendida. The feedback has almost unanimously been ‘I never realised that the MSC product was that good’.

We are almost a hidden secret. Passengers who have found us, absolutely love us but they have to find us and we rely on travel agents for that. Getting a few thousand travel agents on board has been really valuable.

We also launched our Travel Agent Advisory board last summer where we invited many of our top agents to share with us what we are doing right and wrong, what we can improve on and what we can share with them.

NEW BOOKING PLATFORM

We have introduced a new booking platform called MSC Book (www.mscbook. com) and we have done lot of work to make it better and better. We undertook a massive recruitment drive during 2015 and we are fully geared up for 2016. We are actually overstaffed in our contact centre and still recruiting because we know that despite having a great online tool, travel agents do sometimes want to call us for information as well (0203 426 3000).

GROUPS

MSC has introduced a new groups policy to make it easier to book and we are seeing an excellent pick up. From 2015-16 we have six times as many passengers booked as groups as we did last year so that is looking really positive.

We are not the biggest brand, we do not have the biggest sales team, we do not have the most money but we have recruited ‘can do’ people who are positive and upbeat. We want to find ways to work with UK travel agents as we rely on them to sell our holidays and to understand our brand. We have been trying to simplify our brand, simplify the reasons why they might want to propose us to a customer, opposed to a land holiday or another cruise line.

CLIA

We have increased our participation with the CLIA, the Cruise Lines International Association, because it is a great vehicle for getting in front of travel agents. They have been really helpful. We are very focused but we don’t spend millions of pounds in marketing money and we have been very clear that we are not an Italian cruise line – we have our headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and that’s important as it gives a positive image about good time-keeping, reliability, safety and security.

NEW ITINERARIES

We are excited about being the first cruise line to base a ship in Cuba. MSC Opera will be offering seven-night itineraries with two days and two nights in Havana this winter and we have expect an increase in Cuba deployment in future years. The Caribbean is a big destination for MSC and we have MS Divina sailing out of Miami in 2016-2017 and MSC Orchestra in the southern Caribbean. MSC Persia will be offering 14-night cruises, flying into and out of Barbados so British passengers can make the most of direct flights.

We are seeing massive demand for this product and we have several thousand passengers booked this coming winter. MSC is also expanding its presence in the UAE – Abu Dhabi port’s new terminal is now open so MSC Musica will be sailing out of Abu Dhabi and Dubai on a sevenday rotation. This gives our passengers a choice of airlines, a choice of embarkation port and if they are considering a pre or post-cruise stay they can stay in either city. For winter 2016-17 MSC Fantasia, our biggest class ship and at the top end of our product range, will be in the Gulf.

UK SAILINGS

We had a break from sailing in and out of UK but next summer MSC Splendida will embark from Southampton and we are already seeing significant demand. She is one of our newer class ships and will be offering a Round Britain cruise and four to seven-night sailings to Northern Europe and a showcase two-night cruise to Hamburg.

 

 

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