“If agents and customers will support our growth, I am happy to base a bigger ship in the UK in the near future, this is on my agenda.”

Elsewhere, Paradiso said MSC had seen its “best ever sales” and record bookings for the UK so far this year, hailing the success of its new on the road sales team.

“Since we started training agents we have seen significant results; the bookings are getting better and better,” he said.

Paradiso explained that one of his priorities since taking the helm two years ago had been to “put MSC back on the map” for the trade.

“We wanted to make sure we had good cooperation with all of our agent partners because agents remain the backbone of our industry,” he said.

A boost for the brand has been the launch of MSC Meraviglia in the Mediterranean in June, which Paradiso said had been well received by agents and guests.

Meanwhile, the line’s next generation Seaside-class ships, Seaside and Seaview – due to be delivered in December 2017 and June 2018 respectively – are already the line’s best-selling ships for 2018.