MSC to focus on agents & Australia
MSC Cruises Managing Director Australia Alessandro Guerreri has confirmed the line’s commitment to agents will be ramped up over the coming months, with the debut of an e-learning platform, MSC Masters.
Speaking to Cruise Weekly yesterday, Guerreri reinforced the importance to MSC of supporting travel agents over the coming months, with the Masters program to lead the line’s efforts.
Offering agents the ability to graduate to become an MSC Master, the platform will be comprised of MSC lessons, filling in students on the cruise line’s DNA & its main assets, and MSC webinars, which allow agents to stay up to date on the line through online classes.
Agents will begin by covering 12 modules, which include top reasons to cruise, who is MSC, MSC presents, what are the MSC experiences, meet the fleet, food & beverage, entertainment, yacht club, MSC for me, routes & destinations, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve and MSC Voyages Club, following which students will complete an exam, certifying them as an MSC specialist.
“We are thinking to support, implement and structure the team to be more flexible and closer to our travel agents and be sure there is always someone who can listen to their needs or requests, or develop their business,” Guerreri told CW.
“The most important thing we want to do right now is support travel agents and help them to rebuild their business.”
Guerreri also revealed MSC’s reinvigorated commitment to Australia, which is planned to begin with three local ports of call on next year’s world cruise (CW 01 Jul).
The MSC Managing Director Australia also divulged the cruise line was exploring the opportunity to homeport a ship in Australia in the future, possibly in Sydney.
“While it’s not one of our top source markets we want to grow passengers from Australia,” Guerreri said.
“Australia is a very important market for us...we have a loyal customer base and we know there’s demand for MSC to sail in local waters.
“We are studying the opportunity to homeport one of our ships in Australia and when would be the right time to do so.
“When the opportunity arrives to homeport one of our ships in Sydney, why not?”