MSC CRUISES STRENGTHENS NORTH AMERICAN SALES FORCE WITH TWO NEW POSITIONS

MSC Cruises USA — the North American arm of MSC Cruises, the Swiss-based world’s largest privately-owned cruise line and market leader in Europe and South America — announced today the addition of two new hires to its sales force: Holly Sievers as Manager of Host and Home-Based Accounts and Brett Draper as Manager of Corporate and Incentive Sales for North America.

“As we grow in the North American market, a key priority for MSC Cruises is ensuring we have dedicated teams focused on all distribution channels,” said Joe Jiffo, senior vice president of sales for MSC Cruises USA. “With the home-based and M.I.C.E. channels being extremely important and rapidly growing sectors for MSC, we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome both Holly and Brett to our team.”

With more than 20 years of travel industry experience in marketing, advertising and helping travel agencies grow their business, at MSC Cruises Sievers will be responsible for the marketing, sales and training and education of the cruise line’s host agency/home-based agency accounts as well as its Interline accounts.

Prior to joining MSC Cruises, Sievers served as the Southwest and Central Region Business Development Manager at Exclusive Travel Group. Earlier in her career, Sievers held positions with Carnival Cruise Lines, Funjet Vacations, and the travel section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Her experience also includes successfully founding and owning a global advertising and marketing company where she built multi-media campaigns for travel industry partners worldwide.

To increase brand visibility in the M.I.C.E. sector, Draper will be responsible for cultivating and managing corporate relationships with a focus on the North American Meetings, Incentives and Charter market.

Draper joins MSC Cruises from the sales specialist team of Lindblad-National Geographic Expeditions. With 10 years of experience in the cruise industry, Draper has also served as a charter service manager for Norwegian Cruise Line and an event manager for Holland America Line where he spent five years at sea.