- ‘Taking advantage of the good connectivity that the city has, and that they can spend at least one night in a hotel here, with which we would be able to increase the number of passengers, so we need a bigger ship’ – General Director of MSC Cruises Spain, Fernando Pacheco
MSC Cruises is committed to making the change the MSC Orchestra, from its Music series, incorporating one of the ships still to be determined from its Fantasy series.
The move is to provide a greater size and capacity of boarding – up to 4,000 passengers.
The news comes amid Alicante Port having agreed with MSC Cruises to continue to be visiting, until at least 2024.
The shipping company of Italian-Swiss origin launched the inaugural scale of its shipments this month from the Port for its routes through the Western Mediterranean, repeated during the 2023 and 2024 summer campaigns.
The announcement comes after the success achieved in the commercialisation of the passages among all the national tourists and among cruise passengers coming from the province of Alicante. The MSC Orchestra arrived at the Port at 90% of its capacity, with 3,000 cruise passengers on board, joined by 300 travellers from the Alicante maritime terminal, said General Director of MSC Cruises in Spain, Fernando Pacheco.
Eleven stopovers scheduled until October 22 offer an higher balance, in terms of shipments in Alicante, of between 320-380 cruise passengers.
“There are practically no booths left with the response having been very good. We are very satisfied with the results for the first year,” said Pacheco.
MSC Cruises itinerary will move 36,000 cruise passengers to Alicante in the global calculation of the season, with the potential a good percentage will visit the city, giving a boost to tourism trade for stores, hotels and restaurants.
Programming of the tourist routes have been confirmed for the next two seasons, allowing the number of stopovers and passengers who can get on board from the capital of the Costa Blanca set to increase.
MSC Cruises is to launch the same itinerary – Málaga, Cádiz, Lisbon, Alicante, Mahón, Marseille, Olbia and Genoa – also, with ten nights of travel, commencing at the end of May 2023.
The 12 shipments planned for this season will be expanded to between 15 and 16 for the year 2023. In principle, that same calendar could be repeated for the summer of 2024, pending bookings.
MSC Cruises is committed to making the change the MSC Orchestra, from its Music series, and incorporate one of the ships still to be determined from its Fantasy series, provided with greater size and capacity with a potential of boarding up to 4,000 passengers.
“What we want for both 2023 and 2024 is to be able to attract even more cruise passengers from the North of Spain, Galicia, or Asturias, who travel to Alicante by train or by plane.
“Taking advantage of the good connectivity that the city has, and that they can spend at least one night in a hotel here, with which we would be able to increase the number of passengers, so we need a bigger ship,” said Pacheco.
Currently between 30 and 40% of the passengers are of Italian nationality, between 20 and 30% Spanish and 15% Portuguese, the remainder being French, Germans and British, according to the general director of MSC Cruises in Spain.
Caption: General Director of MSC Cruises in Spain, Fernando Pacheco.
