More Barbadians are expected to find work with the Italian cruise line, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), when two of the company’s ships begin operations in the Caribbean.
The MSC Devina arrives in the Caribbean in late November. Miami will be its home port. The ship has a passenger capacity of 4 400 and carries 1 300 crew. It is one of the MSC’s largest ships, and will stay in the Caribbean market all year long, the first time an MSC ship would be remaining in one area for an entire year.
The 3 000-passenger MSC Musica will operate from Martinique next year and will cruise the southern Caribbean for a four to five-month period.
Corporate manager for MSC’s Crew Department Nicola Rotulo recently held discussions in Barbados with Judeen Scantlebury, CEO of Trinity Recruitment Services, the ships’ local agent responsible for recruiting Barbadians to work with MSC.
The MSC official said that given Barbadians’ familiarity with the United States tourist market, the cruise line intended to place the Barbadian crew in different areas of the two ships, since the passenger complement would be mainly American. (GC)
