MSC Cruises has announced the expansion of its offering for the UK & Irish market with a new ship calling at Southampton.

Starting in 2018, for the first time, MSC Magnifica will board UK and Irish passengers on ex-UK cruises to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, to address the strong growth in demand the company has been experiencing.

Antonio Paradiso, managing director of MSC Cruises for the UK & Ireland, helped designing the new itineraries for MSC Magnifica to match the feedback received from key travel partners’ accounts and develop a unique product tailored to the preferences of this market.

He said: “I am proud to announce that MSC Cruises is returning to call the UK with one of our best ships and a unique offering: cruises with less time at sea in both Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

“I have personally worked with our itineraries team to make this possible and look forward to launching this new product – for which sales will open shortly on November 21st.”

From March to October, MSC Magnifica will call at Southampton for cruises that will last from seven to 14 days to Europe’s most beautiful destinations.

Paradiso added: “We are expanding our offering with the ambition to further grow our market share in the UK & Ireland.

“We have set demanding objectives at the beginning of the year to make this possible, of which the deployment of MSC Magnifica and its tailor-made itineraries is one of the many examples.

“We are committed to this market together with our travel partners and are demonstrating this by delivering hard facts.”