Steve Williams is a man on a mission. He speaks to us about MSC Cruises’ fighting spirit and hugely ambitious expansion plans.

Steve Williams and MSC Cruises are not short of get-up-and-go. It’s an ambition fuelled by a remarkable growth plan – when Williams joined the cruise line three years ago as director of sales UK & Ireland, it had “17 new-builds, of which five are now delivered. We have another 12 to come – it’s absolutely insane but incredibly exciting.”

When distilled into numbers it’s even more eye-watering. “We are now working with about 3,000 more partners than we were three years ago and we are always looking to build on that,” Williams says over lunch. “What’s massively helped us is that wider distribution pool. We need to continue the path of growth, as we’re going from 2.5 million passengers globally to almost six million by 2026.

“We are a team of fighters and we enjoy the challenge. When I joined we had a team of five and now we are a team of 18 and I’m recruiting two more. It’s very structured, with a head of retail, regional sales managers, national account managers, trade support… and we’ve just hired our first national training manager to develop a stronger training remit with the trade.”

This is full-blown, unrelenting expansion. There’s no dipping of the toe in the water here; it’s an unceasing march towards glory. There was the naming of MSC Bellissima in Southampton in March and this month the UK launch event for MSC Grandiosa.

Oh, and the line is entering the luxury market, with four luxury cruise ships to be built by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. The first is due in 2023: “I’m limited to what I can say at the moment, but it’ll be incredibly exciting,” says Williams. It’s a miracle he and his team get any sleep.

An unmissable opportunity

However, Williams did not join the cruise sector, and subsequently MSC Cruises, to sit back and have it easy. After more than a decade at Royal Caribbean International, including a stint as head of sales, an opportunity emerged to work with Antonio Paradiso, MSC’s MD of the UK & Ireland.

Williams describes it as “a turning point for MSC”, as the company “had dabbled in the UK and Republic of Ireland but it had never been a strategic market for them”. Fast forward and the line is now a market leader in the Republic of Ireland and is growing in the UK.

Williams explains: “There’s a much greater understanding [of the brand]… when I joined, if I had gone out and asked someone ‘have you seen one of our ships?’, maybe one in 10 would say yes, and that would be old MSC. Now we have globalised and the product is becoming more appropriate for the UK and US market.”

Evidence of this can be found in the decision to revamp MSC Magnifica for the line’s longest ex-UK season. MSC Magnifica will undergo a transformation, adding 23 metres to the ship for an extra 7,000 square metres of space.

The ship will sail 24 itineraries from Southampton, from May to October 2021, with voyages ranging from two to 14 nights. Destinations include the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and the Baltics.

“It shows our serious commitment to the market,” adds Williams. “We believe the UK still under-indexes in cruise and there’s huge potential.”

The MSC commitment

At the same time as the MSC Magnifica announcement in September, Williams also revealed 10 trade commitments, including a personalised service to treat all agents as individuals and a guarantee of price parity. The purpose, he explains, is to reassure people, as “there is probably an element of nervousness about how big we will become”.

“The time was right to cement that [reassurance] and give the trade – as we become a really large cruise line – that security that the things they love about us won’t change. I want to be clear that our ways of working will not change. We will not lose what sets us apart – the flexible and personalised service. We don’t want a ‘computer says no’ scenario, one I’ve seen time and time again as companies grow.”

The topic of companies changing inevitably brings the conversation on to the Thomas Cook situation. Williams admits “there are huge implications” and that the next 12 months will be difficult.

However, his positivity – which exudes from his personality – does not go into hiding, even at this juncture. “People will still take their holidays and others will pick up the business,” he says.

“I think there’s an opportunity for cruise now. Three million package holidays are out of market. In 2020 you will see a shortage of holidays available and a great alternative is a cruise. We’d all sooner be in a situation where Thomas Cook was still in business, but they aren’t here so we need to adapt and work even harder. We need to work to plug that hole.

“I’ve always believed in retail travel. I think cruise is still considered a fairly complex purchase and customers want to talk to someone who understands. That’s why our investment in training and developing the high street is so important. We are not here to play anymore, we are deadly serious.”

Visit msccruises.co.uk for more information.