Consolidation of GNV’s business relationships with European trading partners on the La Suprema ferry – On the occasion of the second edition of the GNV Awards, the Italian ferry company Grandi Navi Veloci – “GNV” invited their sales and business partners for a two-day event on September 22 and 23, 2019 to the Sicilian Palermo. The event focused on strengthening the existing business cooperation with partners from Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Belgium and Albania, as well as Morocco and Tunisia, who primarily operate in Europe and Africa.
GNV Award Ceremony
After an official welcome and a general get-together, the best sales partners were honored with the GNV awards in one of 15 different categories. In the almost 2-hour event, many of the participants were able to receive one of the coveted awards for the best, 2nd best or 3rd best partner in the categories. The award ceremony itself took place on board of one of the largest ferries of GNV, the “La Suprema” in the port of Palermo. The company affirmed its solidarity with its partners, which have always been of great importance to GNV.
Award Winners
Amongst the various winners of the award ceremony were the German company ADAC as the best foreign sales agency, ViaVai Travel as the best tour operator and Traveljoy as the fastest-growing foreign agency. The whole winners list can be downloaded HERE.
More than 260 guests took part in the varied program of the two days. A special highlight (in addition to gala dinner and award ceremony) was a visit to the opera house “Teatro Massimo”, which was the conclusion of the meeting. Once again, all partners came together and could address structural questions to the management of the GNV. During this 2-hour schedule, the management of the GNV answered all questions from its business partners in the audience.
In this context, the company released its results for the 2019 summer season, announcing growth of 5% over the last year. In particular, the destination of Sardinia turned out to be a great success in terms of customer satisfaction and carried passengers: On the Sardinia routes, the company recorded 66 percent more passengers compared to the previous year and was able to pay 63 percent commission to its partner agencies.
In addition to the award ceremony, the main business partners (so-called elite partners) of the ferry company met to find out about the products on the different ferries and the services on site for their travelers. This year, GNV appointed eight new elite partners, including a tour operator from Munich, Germany – Salambo Tours.
An event, specifically geared to the Tunisian market, turned out to be a great success: Rapper Artmasta chose GNV as the partner for his latest music video, which is aimed at the Maghreb countries living abroad. The video clip was shot on the ship “La Superba”. The video was released on YouTube on 4 August 2019 reached more than 380,000 views in less than 2 days and has now surpassed the one and a half million mark.
The collaboration with various external partners demonstrates GNV’s commitment to providing a variety of on-board services tailored to the needs of all types of passengers. They include, above all, families, passengers with pets, four-wheelers and motorcyclists to classic business travelers.
- Special runway for dogs on board of GNVs “La Suprema”
In addition to the classic ferry business, GNV is also involved in the MICE sector. In 2019, GNV was able to host two major music events on board its ships: the sponsorship of the “Vasco Non Stop Live 019″ concert tour with a special trip to Cagliari to support the concerts on the 18th and 19th June 2019. The “Open Sea Republic di Red Bull” event was held from June 21 to 23, 2019. Here, the “La Suprema” ferry was led by Salmo, a rapper from Olbia, Sardinia, who spent 36 hours hosting an interactive festival in the middle of the sea with numerous artists.
GNV is one of the largest cargo and passenger shipping companies operating a fleet of 15 modern equipped ferries in the Mediterranean, with headquarters in Genoa. The company currently offers 18 different routes in the Mediterranean, connecting mainland Italy with Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, Tunisia, Morocco, Albania and France.
