The projection this year is for a strong one million cruise passengers in Genoa, with 580,000 homeporting guests. The 2018 season extends all the way to December 29 with a call from the 2017-built MSC Meraviglia.

Next year, that number surges by 30 percent to 1.3 million, with 750,000 cruise passengers embarking in the Italian port, according to Edoardo Monzani, CEO of Stazioni Maritime (the cruise port).

The big news this year is the arrival of Disney Cruise Line, he said, with three calls from the Disney Magic on her seasonal European program.

“For 2019, Costa is coming back with 34 calls with the Fortuna,” he said.

Monzani said it was important to constantly raise the quality of port services and infrastructure to keep the cruise lines coming back. In addition, there are incentive programs for week-day cruise calls.

“We need more operational areas and more berths dedicated to cruise traffic,” Monzani added.

Traffic is a 12-month feature in the Italian city next year. The MSC Magnifica starts the season on Saturday, January 5, interporting for a 10-day Western Mediterranean cruise. Later in the year, the MSC Grandiosa, which will be launched in 2019, closes the season on December 28 with an interporting call on a seven-night itinerary also touching Civitavecchia, Palermo, Valletta and Marseilles.