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Cruise Technology and the Passenger Experience

Cruise technology and the passenger experience

The technology on board cruise ships today can greatly enhance the passenger experience. But once called floating hotels, today we’re becoming more used to describing many of these new ships as connected cities or smart cities at sea.

When MSC Cruises – which is arguably the most innovative cruise company in the world – launched MSC Meraviglia in 2017, the company spent 3% of the ship’s cost (or €30 million) on its passenger-centric digital platform MSC for Me.

Fast forward to 2019, just two years, to the launch of MSC Bellissima and the company has spent 6% of the ship’s cost on its passenger experience technology (which includes the ground-breaking AI-powered voice assistant Zoe). So we see that in just two years the investment has doubled.

 

Cruise ships: ground-breaking innovation in public transportation


The innovation that we’re seeing in the cruise industry regarding passenger experience is ground-breaking for public transport.

Online check-in has been a massive breakthrough for passengers and passenger flow in aviation, but on board while we do have some planes with WiFi and some introducing VR to their in-flight entertainment systems, for the most part they are still unconnected and offer standard in-flight entertainment services (most short-hauls still only offer print magazines).

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