Cruises: MSC enters Taranto and expects a good summer for 2021

“Even though cruise bookings are now closer than the departure date, we still have signs that summer 2021 will be decent. Above all, it will lay the foundations for summer 2022 which will represent the real recovery ». He said this at a press conference in connection with Taranto, Leonardo Massa, managing director at MSC Cruises, presenting the new Mediterranean itinerary which, departing from Genoa today, on 5 May with the ship MSC Seaside will climb Taranto for the first time. The Apulian port thus enters the lines of the company. «Until 2019 – said Massa – the programs for the summer were 95 per cent full between April and May. Everything is different now, but since after Easter we are noticing that there is enthusiasm. The ways of consumption are changing, we have made a digital leap from which we will not go back. The agencies that are taking advantage of this change are working, but those who lift the shutter and wait for the customer are standing still ».
Ten ships in operation, 6 for Europe
Regarding MSC’s new 2021 programming, the managing director of cruises spoke of «10 ships in operation, 6 of which are dedicated to Europe. With regard to the market, we will measure the signals over the months but we are still full of optimism ». Massa then said that “before the pandemic, our plan included new arrivals and new ships, a plan that did not stop. In February – he added – they delivered a new ship and another will arrive in August. We also have a project for smaller ships for a different segment of customers, but this is also a pre-pandemic project ”. Massa then spoke of Italy’s new role in cruises “given the impossibility of making long-range journeys. In discovering new destinations – Massa continued explaining the port of Taranto -, the cruise industry has accelerated. In Italy, the cruise line has 820,000 employees and 14 billion in turnover. These are interesting numbers and Italy may have new opportunities. We have a centuries-old maritime tradition, a shipbuilding industry of excellence, a country in the center of the Mediterranean of extraordinary variety. Italy therefore has an important role and will grow even more ”.
An anti Covid protocol that sets the standard
“The protocol developed by MSC for safe cruises has been taken as an example, as a model of best practices to be followed, by most of the companies in the sector as well as by the hospitality industry” said Massa. «The damage from which we come out is complex – Massa argued about the impact of Covid – but ships that leave and new destinations constitute an ambitious project. The cruise industry has been substantially at a standstill since March 2020 worldwide. When we were hit by the pandemic – explained the manager -, the first problem we posed was to bring back the guests we had around the world and who were 80 thousand, to safety. Then we faced the problem of how to start again ». The managing director MSC Cruises said that «we were among the first to leave on August 16, 2020. Thanks to the protocol of rules developed, on one of our ships, the MSC Grandiosa, 60 thousand people traveled. Our protocol is based on a concept: the ship as a bubble ». It works that «96 hours before boarding, passengers have to swab, which obviously must be negative, and on the day of boarding we make another swab which must also be negative. On the ship, then, there are extraordinary hygiene measures. The elevators, for example, are sanitized 48 times a day ». For the managing director of MSC Cruises, «on board we keep the spirit of the cruise alive without distorting it. It is in fact possible to go to the gym as well as to the theater. Each guest is equipped with an armlet that traces the contacts. Furthermore, on the fourth day of navigation we do another swab ». For Massa, “the strength of the protocol is the tracking and availability of spaces and corridors in complete safety”.
The port of Taranto
Every Wednesday, from May 5th to November 10th, the Seaside will touch the port of Taranto. It was launched in 2019 and is the second ship that MSC makes operational after the Great. Seaside it is equipped with over 2,000 cabins but will travel at 75 percent of its filling capacity. The ship will stop in Taranto from 9 am to 6 pm. Genoa, Malta, Syracuse, Taranto, Civitavecchia and then Genoa again form the itinerary. “2021 will be a litmus test for Taranto but I am optimistic for the future,” said Massa. Among the excursions offered, there are also three beaches.
Speaking of cruises, the mayor of Taranto, Rinaldo Melucci, he said: «All our programming, starting from our strategic plan, looks to the productive specialization and to the return of our identity trait, which is the sea». Referring to the forecasts for the 2021 season and the arrival of other companies, Melucci spoke of «150 thousand visitors expected, an unprecedented, absolutely positive number, which we hope to be able to confirm given the context. The acceleration of Taranto’s exit from the iron and steel monoculture – he concluded – necessarily requires that other choices be made ».
Global Ports service concessionaire
Per Sergio Prete, president ofPort system authority of the Ionian Sea, “Few believed that Taranto could have a future in cruises. But MSC has followed us in the fairs, in the reviews, and has seen our constant commitment. We have put in place a financial commitment – said Prete – for the new docks and a new terminal as well as a waterfront redevelopment project. We are working so that the experience of MSC can be consolidated over the years ». Finally, on 30 April the Authority and the Municipality of Taranto made official the concession to the new terminal operator of the port of Taranto. It is about Taranto Cruise Port which belongs to Global Ports. Taranto Cruise Port will have in concession by the Authority for the next 20 years a part of maritime state-owned areas and assets that insist on San Cataldo pier to ensure support services for cruise passengers and related cruises.

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