During a virtual trade event, MSC’s Gianluca Suprani and Celestyal’s Chris Theophilides discussed the present and future of Mediterranean cruising.

According to them, Mediterranean cruising will will only get more popular, and longer cruises will prevail over shorter ones.

“Going forward, what we will be seeing is people… taking it a bit more slowly, enjoying the immersive experiences,” said Theophilides, CEO at Celestyal. “It’s not so much about ticking places off the list; it’s getting to know places and slowing down the pace of life, especially after being cooped up for so long.”

From Celestyal’s bookings for 2021, Theophilides can see that the most popular option is the seven-day cruise that takes passengers to different destinations.

The other reason why tourists might be booking more of seven-plus day cruises is that ports, due to the latest health and safety regulations, have trimmed their capacities.

“The new requirement as part of the ship protocols that we’re rolling out – more tests done at the port level, the need to stage excursions, the need for more space, and so on – [mean that] it’s a different environment for ports and they might not be able to operate at the peak capacity they were operating at in 2019,” Theophilides explained.

This was backed up by Gianluca Suprani, MSC’s senior vice president for global port development and shore side activities.

“There is a tendency to have longer cruises,” he said before adding that smaller tourist groups and sustainability are other trends that emerged recently.

“We had some tours that had bike tours – that’s a sustainable initiative – in the forests. Sometimes [tourists] want to be active and even clean or feel themselves a part of something good that we are doing.”

When it comes to Eastern Mediterranean compared to the Western Mediterranean, Theophilides believes that the East Mediterranean will pick up in popularity once its regions see more “geopolitical calm.”

“One of the challenges [we saw] initially when cruising was developing across the Mediterranean, and the West Med outpaced the East Med, [is that] a critical ingredient is always to have geopolitical calm in the region. And the East Med, from time to time, unfortunately, does not have that, and that’s a disruptor,” he said.

Both , however, agree that the prospects for the Mediterranean are very bright.

“The Mediterranean will continue to have a bright future,” said Suprani.

Theophilides added:“The Mediterranean is a cruising paradise. It has all the ingredients: excellent destinations, diversity, culture … For me, it’s undeniable that [the Mediterranean] will continue to be in the top two (most popular types of cruises.),” he said.

“I think we’ll give the Caribbean a run for its money once we organize ourselves well.”