MSC Cruises will shoot sales from Spanish ports by 40% compared to 2019

MSC Cruises plans to reach the number of passengers before Covid in 2022, with a total of 200,000, thanks to the pull of Spanish ports, which will represent 70% of its sales and will experience a 40% increase compared to 2019.

MSC Cruises prepares to pick up speed again. The cruise company based in Geneva (Switzerland) hopes to recover the passenger levels of 2019, with some 200,000 passengers this year, thanks mainly to the pull in Spain, which will account for 70% of sales and a growth of 40 % vs. pre-Covid figure.

Part of this growth is explained by the incorporation this summer of a new MSC Bellissima ship, one of the group's flagships with capacity for around 6,000 passengers. This ship will depart from two Spanish ports, Valencia and Barcelona, ​​from July 9 and the company will facilitate the connection with a dozen airports in the country.

With the incorporation of this ship, the company's passenger forecasts from Spanish ports go from the initially estimated 120,000 to 140,000, which also represents a growth of 40% over 2019.

"If in 2019 55-60% of everything that was sold were departures from Spanish ports, this year it will go to 70%," says Fernando Pacheco, general director of MSC Cruises in Spain.

Specifically, this summer ten ships of the cruise company will pass through Spanish ports and eight of them will embark and disembark in the country.

In general terms, the manager believes that Spain will continue this year below the total number of cruise passengers at pre-pandemic levels, when 500,000 passengers were reached, due to the fact that the omicron variant and the war in Ukraine have delayed the commercial and promotional campaign.

The manager recalls, however, the good evolution with a demand in May 144% above that of the same month of 2019 and with sales rising in the first week of June.

This growth from Spanish ports will compensate for the brake that the company will experience in other destinations with more limited demand such as in the Baltic countries, after the removal of the stop in Saint Petersburg from the itineraries.

"These destinations, which are booked well in advance, today have not been in demand and, consequently, that passenger buys more from us in the Spanish port," he advances.

Pacheco also recognizes that the rise in prices and the rise in costs, especially in energy, is penalizing his margins because they are being assumed and not passed on to the passenger. Thus, and despite inflation, the company's sales prices will be 15% below 2019.