For the first time in 2022, MSC Cruises will operate two ships in the Chinese homeport market, announced the company. MSC Virtuosa, the future flagship of the company and the biggest cruise ship in Europe, will join her sister ship MSC Bellissima, the largest in Asia, to service the Chinese market. MSC Cruises will be the first major international cruise line to deploy two flagships in China, marking the start of a new age of “double flagship deployment”in the Chinese cruise market.

Founded and owned by the Aponte family, MSC Cruises is the brand leader in Europe, South America, the Gulf region and Southern Africa. The company started its homeport operations in China in 2016. Previous to today’s announcement, MSC Cruises’ strategy in the market has been operating one vessel but periodically upgrading the deployed ship, from MSC Lirica in 2016 to MSC Splendida in 2018, to the upcoming flagship MSC Bellissima in 2021. The deployment of MSC Virtuosa, jointly with MSC Bellissima’s operations, will see a major increase to the company’s capacity and business scale in 2022.

“Operating two vessels is a crucial upgrade to our development strategy in China. Deploying two of our fleet’s flagships, in addition, is a testimonial to our commitment and sincerity to develop hand-in-hand with the Chinese cruise industry,”said Ms Helen Huang, president of MSC Cruises China..