During a traditional ceremony on board, inside MSC World Europa's Raj Polo Tea House, the ship’s captain Dino Sagani said he was ‘looking forward to having a strong relationship with Marseille,’ as he received French guests.
MSC Cruises’ GM for France, Patrick Pourbaix, commended Chantiers de l’Atlantique for their exceptional expertise in building highly complex vessels and congratulated Marseille for positioning itself as the first LNG bunkering hub in France. With 1,200 French passengers boarding the ship that day, he also referred to the ‘excellent’ booking figures the company has been experiencing since the start of the year and stressed Marseille’s importance as a turnaround port for the cruise line. During 2023, France’s busiest cruise port will also offer departures with MSC Grandiosa, MSC Orchestra and MSC Seashore.
Exchange of gifts
As part of the festivities, plaques and presents – including a box of ‘calissons,’ a marzipan sweet typical of Provence – were exchanged with: Nicolas Delmas, captain, Grand Port Maritime de Marseille; Benoit Patinet, unit commander, Maritime Gendarmerie; Julien Massoni, deputy GM, Marseille Provence Cruise Terminal; Jean-Frédéric Legal, pilot, Cruise Club Marseille Provence; Gaston Roumieu, volunteer, AMAM-Seamen’s Club; Marcel Cavagnaro at Luggage Porters’ Association.
Activity at the port has been building
In 2019, the Port of Marseille received 497 cruise calls and 1.9m cruise passengers, including 1.4m in transit and 500,000 embarking.
The port recommenced operations July 4, 2021 following the global pause in cruise operations caused by the pandemic, which led to 160 calls and 350,000 passengers for that year.
In contrast, Marseille recorded over 500 calls, including 378 turnarounds and 194 transit calls in 2022. The total number of cruise passengers received was 1,474,700 - of those, 383,000 connected with turnarounds and 1 091 700 resulting from transit calls. A fifth of calls came from operators outside of Europe.
2023 outlook for Marseille
Marseille, which aims to be a sustainable port and cruise destination, is progressively returning to its pre-pandemic levels and remains optimistic for 2023. It awaits over 600 calls and should welcome over 2m passengers - more than in 2019.
Some 165 maiden calls are scheduled, including ships recently launched, such as Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Viva and Norwegian Prima, Viking’s Viking Saturn, Silversea’s Silver Nova, Compagnie Française de Croisières’ Renaissance, Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Seven Seas Grandeur and Ritz Carlton-Yacht Collection’s Evrima.
Around 150 calls will be from vessels powered by LNG, including ships from AIDA-, Costa-, MSC- and P&O Cruises.
Sights set on new cruise terminal
40 of the calls will be at J4, made up of smaller or luxury cruise lines, such as Azamara, Club Med, Ponant, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas, Ritz Carlton, Seabourn, Silversea, Sea Cloud, Viking and Windstar. They will dock in an area situated between MUCEM Museum, Digue du Large seawall and the La Major Cathedral. With possible works in the pipeline, J4 could offer vessels a dedicated 1000 sq m terminal in the near future.
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