AnnualMeeting2020 Assarmatori,Pierfrancesco Vago (Executive Chairman MSC SA) sul tema delle crociere

First of all, let me take this opportunity to thank the authorities present here, Admiral Dragone, Admiral Pettorino, and many others. I would also like to thank Minister De Micheli, many of the courts and governors of the various regions, and all the institutions. Because the cruises suffered a very serious blow from the emergency. At the beginning of the emergency in March of this year, we unfortunately had the first commander to experience the start of a pandemic that was unknown to health authorities anywhere in the world. So we gained a very important experience: we had to stop all ships, repatriate about 75,000 passengers around the world and 35,000 seafarers at a time when airports were closing and nations were going into lockdown. Through this experience, we saw the capacity of the cruise industry, the investment in norms, not only in the passenger experience but also in the health rules we could offer on cruise ships. We started consulting, and from Brussels we went to the high-level gateways and the body that follows those protocols for the industry in Europe, and we wrote a protocol. We assembled a panel of experts, virologists, and doctors from various countries, and we put together a protocol that is now the current protocol for the cruise sector. MSC Grandiosa started with the opening of the DPCM in August, departing from Genoa on August 16, and it is still active. We have transported, let me say, over 25,000 passengers. We managed to create, with an important protocol, the ability to create a bubble, to provide an absolutely sterile vacation. We were the first to test all passengers: the passenger arriving at the terminal is tested, as are all the crew working on board. So we guarantee this health bubble on the ship that can offer a vacation, clearly with distancing rules, technology that helps with distancing, and the use of masks. But today it's incredible, we have done an incredible job. And what I wanted is to thank the institutions because once we designed the protocol, we went to speak at the central level: the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Health, the CTS, but we also went to the port authorities, the local health units, the cities, the assessorates, the regions, and the ports themselves to present and discuss this protocol, because there was no coordination in this sense. And this protocol works. It's incredible. Today, in Italy, at certain times, shops close. If you want to drink a beer, eat a pizza or sushi, you can only do it on a cruise ship. So this is a reason for pride, because it remains a pride for the industry but also for the country system, because this protocol is effectively exported to the whole world. The world is asking us how this protocol works. And it always gives pleasure to highlight the things that work in our country, and therefore also the safety protocols.