When MSC Cruises – which is arguably the most innovative cruise company in the world – launched MSC Meraviglia in 2017, the company spent 3% of the ship’s cost (or €30 million) on its passenger-centric digital platform MSC for Me.
Fast forward to 2019, just two years, to the launch of MSC Bellissima and the company has spent 6% of the ship’s cost on its passenger experience technology (which includes the ground-breaking AI-powered voice assistant Zoe). So we see that in just two years the investment has doubled.
Cruise ships: ground-breaking innovation in public transportation
The innovation that we’re seeing in the cruise industry regarding passenger experience is ground-breaking for public transport.
Online check-in has been a massive breakthrough for passengers and passenger flow in aviation, but on board while we do have some planes with WiFi and some introducing VR to their in-flight entertainment systems, for the most part they are still unconnected and offer standard in-flight entertainment services (most short-hauls still only offer print magazines).