One On One With MSC’s Richard Sasso

MSC Opera.

MSC Cruises, the market-leading cruise company in the Mediterranean, also is “probably the best-kept secret in North America,” says Richard Sasso, chairman of MSC Cruises USA Inc. But that is about to change, as the European-based luxury line steps up its investments on this side of the Atlantic. 

“MSC is just beginning to make investments in the North American market,” Sasso told TMR at a recent meeting at the ASTA Global Conference in Reno, “but those investments will anchor us here for the long term, and we will continue to bring assets here.”

Most notable among those assets surely will be the Ocean Cay Marine Reserve in the Bahamas, scheduled to open in October 2018. Every ship in the fleet will call on that port, Sasso said, pulling right up and allowing passengers to disembark without a tender.

Also coming soon will be a second ship sailing out of Florida and another to the Western Caribbean. And since MSC’s Cuba cruises, which launched in November, “have been full every cruise,” two more ships will be added to the schedule there “as soon as we tie up some legal issues.”

The North American sailings generally attract about 85% U.S.-based customers, a sea change from the 20% market share on European and Chinese-based ships, Sasso said. But while Americans may be in the minority when sailing MSC abroad, many enjoy the authenticity of the experience of cruising with a local clientele.

In addition to having more ships, MSC is looking to offer more for customers to do on each one. “Lifestyle has become more of an appeal, so we’ve gone very strong into strategic partnerships, with Technogym, Lego for children’s programs and especially Cirque du Soleil.” MSC prides itself on offering “the best entertainment at sea,” including six different shows on its seven-night cruises.

Another big investment is in MSC’s internal training centers, where staff is put through an extensive program in English language, state-of-the-industry job skills, and even that elusive element of “personality.” 

“The personality of the crew is something of a lost art,” Sasso said. “Forty years ago it was the crew that drove cruise lines and kept customers coming back, not the hardware. We are trying to recapture that aspect.”

With all that, though, Sasso acknowledges that competing against “gorillas who have been in this market for 50 or 60 years” is not an easy task—and so he relies on the travel agency community “to be our biggest allies and act as Pied Pipers to the customers.”

To help you sell, MSC’s status match program has been “so huge I don’t even want to comment on it,” he said. The program grants customers with high loyalty status in any cruise or hotel program an equal status on MSC on their very first cruise, so travel agents can automatically upgrade a platinum Marriott Rewards customer, for example, to platinum status on MSC.

Beyond that, though, Sasso says, “we have the highest quality vessels and we’re investing lot of money. But we want to grow the brand, so we need to have a price that’s a little better than the other guys. So your customers are getting a premium product at a great price, because we don’t yet have the advantage we deserve.”