Arnie Weissmann
In February 2023 I wrote a column about racist incidents that travel advisor Margie Jordan and her Black guests encountered during an MSC cruise.
Prior to its publication, I contacted MSC Cruises USA president Ruben Rodriguez to give him an opportunity to respond. He said, in part, that "these incidents are not consistent with our values, and we take them very seriously."
I ended the column writing that, "ultimately, actions speak louder than words, and I hope MSC will share broadly the next steps it determines are necessary to effect positive change."
Following publication of the article, Bob Sullivan, chief commercial officer and president of Travel Weekly parent company Northstar Travel Group and I reached out to Rodriguez and asked if he'd be willing to speak with travel advisors Stephen Scott and Valerie Dorsey, co-chairs of Northstar's Retail Group Black Travel Advisory Board. Rodriguez agreed; the subsequent meeting was off the record.
I'm happy to share that the reporting of the incident in Travel Weekly last year has borne fruit. After speaking with Scott and Dorsey, MSC assigned Magali Bertolucci, a psychologist who had worked for nine years in the company's recruitment and training department, to devise a Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing plan.
Bertolucci told me on a Zoom call earlier this month that MSC had been looking at issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) even before the article published. "Was [the column] a wake-up call? I would say yes. It helped us realize that we were moving in the right direction to have a department dedicated to those aspects," she said.
"Was it a surprise? Yes. We don't have those kinds of issues daily. There were a few incidents [cited in the column], and one of them, in the bar, imprinted on me because it led to an interpretation of a very clear injustice and that we need to have a corporate strategy. So, all together, [the column] was a positive event because it helped us, like it would help the whole cruise industry."
Her mandate is broad and includes not only recommendations for guest interactions but also for employees, suppliers and partners. She made clear that this is not a cut-and-paste DEI plan. "We've done a lot of listening these past 18 months."
To begin, she created a 12-person Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee in July 2023. Scott was invited to join. "I asked if he could help us because having his vision and the vision of the Black travelers that he's advising is key," Bertolucci said. "In order to change, we need to be open about our own reality and understand both where we are and where we want to go."
Scott, a luxury advisor and CEO of Travel Hub 365, feels it's important that "external resources like myself [are included] to break up the groupthink in meetings and discussions. We're not worried about internal pressures to agree."
He's aligned with the goal to analyze data and feedback to assess the impact of issues unearthed by guests, employees and external partners and "to develop an industry-leading DEI plan to track, train and improve continuously."
"It's direct, impactful, and it will hopefully bring about a new standard that they can point to analytically, emotionally and financially as a success when the metrics they have identified trend upward," Scott said.
As to the unusual name of the program -- the absence of "equity" (the "E" in DEI) and the inclusion of "Wellbeing" -- Bertolucci said that the scope of the project had to be organic from the culture of the privately held, family-owned company and to reflect its values.
"It was a big topic, how to call this, how not to call this," she said. "At the end of the day, well-being came out as the one that matters.
"Diversity is already a fact," she continued. "We have over 150 nationalities working for us. We have guests coming from all over the world, from many different ethnicities and religious beliefs.
"Inclusion is actually part of well-being. We want to make sure that everyone, with their own needs, their own voices, their own cultures and behaviors, are being included, either as a guest, colleague, supplier or partner."
In addition to surveying their employees on topics they had never before touched (they were surprised by the size and candor of their LGBTQ+ cohort), they have engaged RINA, a company authorized by the International Organization of Standardization to assess and possibly certify their program if it meets established guidelines for DEI compliance.
Though it may seem it took a long time for MSC to respond, the timing may be fortuitous. While many companies are pulling back on their DEI programs, MSC's organic approach based on its values may make it sustainable. As Bertolucci said at one point in our conversation, "I don't think you can create a department about inclusion if you don't truly believe in it. [General DEI] trends are not of much interest to us."