MSC Cruises has named Ken Muskat as Executive Vice President Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. market in a newly-created role, as Muskat returns to the company after a brief hiatus running SkySea Cruise Line out of Shanghai.

Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises, commented: “We welcome Ken back to the MSC Cruises family. With his joining in this newly-created role, which will bring directly under him all key trade and consumer-facing functions in the U.S. market, we are looking to take our commitment especially to our travel agent partners to the next level.”

In this role, Muskat will report to Roberto Fusaro, president, North America, and will manage directly all travel trade-facing functions as well as hotel operations, contact center, revenue management, marketing and communications, the company said. 

Onorato added: “This has specifically been designed to ensure that all key levers of our U.S. product are in the hands of the manager responsible for delivering against the MSC Cruises brand promise and experience within the context of the U.S. marketplace.”

The addition of Muskat’s role will now allow for the Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve project and its go-forward ongoing management as well as the recently-announced development of a new, dedicated MSC Cruises terminal at PortMiami to move directly under the management of the local team.

Onorato continued: “North America is quickly becoming our most important source market, thanks to the investments made in new hardware as well as infrastructure to meet growth in demand for our product by guests from across the U.S. and the overall region. This started with the deployment to PortMiami of the award-winning MSC Seaside, which was specifically designed with Miami and the Caribbean in mind and will be followed by other highly-innovative MSC Cruises vessels.

“Wanting to ensure that especially the Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve gets the necessary attention from our local team to guarantee it meets and exceeds the expectations of North American consumers and travel agent partners made this the next natural step. We have also included the development of our new groundbreaking terminal at PortMiami, recognizing the importance of this key element of the guest experience.”

Roberto Fusaro and Ken Muskat together with Rick Sasso, Chairman North America, will be based out of MSC Cruises’ USA headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, FL.