Tunisian Market: GNV Confirms Interest and Readiness to Support Trade Growth
The 7th GNV Awards, the event that rewards key travel agency partners and designates new Elite Partner and Elite Premium agencies, was held in Marrakech.
- Passenger & Freight Volumes (Jan–Sep 2026): GNV transported approximately 2.2 million passengers (+2% vs. 2025) and 1.84 million linear meters of freight (+5% vs. 2025).
- Strategic Partnership: A three-year strategic partnership (2027–2029) was signed with the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT).
- Fleet Expansion: The names of the next ships joining the fleet were revealed: GNV Jupiter, GNV Mars, GNV Venus, and GNV Mercury, four new vessels powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
GNV Awards 2026: Celebrating Partners and Confirming Growth
The 7th edition of the GNV Awards took place last weekend in Marrakech. Organized by GNV, the Italian ferry company of the MSC Group, this annual event aims to celebrate and strengthen the company’s relationships with its commercial partners, reaffirm its commitment to the travel sector, and reward its top travel agency partners.
The event also served as the platform to present GNV’s results for the first nine months of the year.
Strong Performance in North Africa and Italy
Between January and September 2026, the company transported a total of approximately 2.2 million passengers and 1.84 million linear meters of freight, representing increases of 2% and 5%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2025. These figures confirm a positive trend and steady medium-term volume growth, despite a market environment characterized by increasingly diversified demand and varying dynamics across different markets.
Passenger volumes in North Africa continue to show a positive trend. Algeria, in particular, is consolidating the results recorded during the last year of activity, while Morocco and Tunisia are performing in line with 2025 levels. Overall results confirm the continuous strengthening of GNV’s presence in North African markets.
Performance in passenger and freight transport is also positive on routes to the Italian islands, confirming GNV’s role in traffic flows to and from these key destinations: Sicily saw an 8% increase, while Sardinia grew by 6%. Volumes to the Balearic Islands and Albania also remained broadly stable.
Strategic Partnership with Morocco
The company officially announced a three-year strategic partnership (2027–2029) with the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT) to support GNV’s growth in the Moroccan market.
This agreement aims to strengthen maritime connections and passenger flows between Morocco and Europe, while promoting the Kingdom as a tourist destination and a strategic mobility platform in the Mediterranean. The partnership will include joint destination promotion initiatives, integrated communication campaigns on GNV and ONMT channels in key European markets, and travel offers combining the sea crossing with Morocco’s tourism offerings, targeted at both European travelers and members of the diaspora living in Europe.
The partnership will also support institutional initiatives and GNV events in Morocco, as part of a joint effort with national tourism stakeholders to reinforce Morocco’s role as a gateway between Europe and Africa.
Through its maritime services, GNV connects people, goods, businesses, and communities daily, playing a strategic role in the economic and social development of the regions it serves. In this context, Morocco is one of GNV’s most important and dynamic markets, both for tourist and commercial flows and for connections with Moroccan communities established in Europe.
New Fleet: The Planetary Generation
On the occasion of the GNV Awards, GNV revealed the names of the next ships joining its fleet: GNV Jupiter, GNV Mars, GNV Venus, and GNV Mercury. These are four new vessels powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
Following a series of names inspired by stars – Polaris, Orion, Virgo, and Aurora – the company is launching a new family of names inspired by planets to designate the next generation of ships that will enrich its fleet.
GNV Jupiter will be the first of the four new ships currently under construction at the Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in Guangzhou, China. The vessel will accommodate 2,500 passengers and carry 3,500 linear meters of freight. It will also feature 500 cabins and is expected to join the fleet by the end of 2027.
This announcement marks a new step in the company’s fleet renewal plan, supported by the MSC Group, which has already put four new last-generation ships into service over the past eighteen months.
“Morocco is currently one of GNV’s most dynamic and strategic markets, and the partnership with the Moroccan National Tourism Office is a natural step in the growth trajectory we are building with local institutions and partners. Maritime links play an essential role in supporting mobility, tourism, and economic exchanges between the two shores of the Mediterranean, and we intend to continue investing to strengthen this role.
At the same time, our extensive fleet renewal and expansion plan is progressing, and the announcement of GNV Jupiter is a major new step. It is the first of four additional new ships that will join the fleet in the coming years, thereby strengthening the company’s entire network and reaffirming our commitment to service quality, innovation, and international growth,” stated Matteo Catani, CEO of GNV.
“The GNV Awards represent our most important annual meeting to connect with travel industry professionals and thank them. The results for the first nine months of 2026, with approximately 2.2 million passengers transported, confirm the value of the work we have done with our commercial partners. We extend special thanks to the new Elite Partner and Elite Premium agencies, as well as to all agencies that continue to choose and promote GNV.
We are now approaching the 2027 season with confidence, supported by a constantly expanding network, an evolving fleet, and commercial relationships that are among the company’s main growth drivers,” added Matteo Della Valle, Commercial Director of GNV.
The 2026 edition brought together approximately 120 representatives from Italian and international travel agencies. During the event, the best partner agencies were rewarded, and the new Elite Partner and Elite Premium agencies were unveiled. These agencies are selected under the eponymous program, launched in 2017, which offers them dedicated benefits and initiatives.
Focus on Tunisia: High Development Potential
“Tunisia represents a market with very high development potential for GNV”
GNV CEO Matteo Catani spoke about the development potential of his company’s activities in Tunisia on the sidelines of the GNV Awards press conference, stating:
“What we see today in the Tunisian market is, above all, a very great potential. Tunisia is an extremely active country, with significant agricultural and industrial production, and we are convinced that exchanges with Europe can still be developed.
In this context, maritime transport, and specifically the ferry network, can play an essential role. It constitutes a true infrastructure serving the Tunisian economy, allowing businesses and producers to quickly access the European market. This is particularly important for the agricultural and industrial sectors, but also for all commercial exchanges.
More broadly, we believe that maritime links contribute to the economic and social development of the territories they connect. They bring markets closer, facilitate the mobility of people, and strengthen exchanges between communities on both shores of the Mediterranean. This is the vision we have for our presence in Tunisia.
We also see considerable potential in the passenger market. There is strong demand from Tunisians, particularly for their travel between Tunisia and Europe, but also from tourists who wish to discover Tunisia.
I personally had the opportunity to travel to Tunisia this summer. I visited Djerba, Tunis, Hammamet, Sousse, Monastir, and several coastal regions from north to south. I was able to directly observe the country’s richness, the beauty of its landscapes, and, above all, the considerable tourism potential it represents. Everything I discovered reinforced my belief that there are still many possibilities for development.
We were also able to measure this demand very concretely at GNV well before last summer. When we opened bookings in advance for the Civitavecchia–Tunis and Tunis–Civitavecchia route, we recorded great market interest. Demand was clearly present, and we hope, God willing, to establish this direct line on a long-term basis.
Unfortunately, certain administrative and regulatory issues have not allowed us, at this stage, to finalize the authorization process necessary to launch this route. However, the level of demand we observed is a very positive signal for us and confirms the potential of this connection.
We are therefore convinced that there are still many possibilities to develop in Tunisia. On our side, we are ready to work within the framework of bilateral relations between Italy and Tunisia, which have gained new momentum with the agreement signed between the two governments in July.
We are more than willing to contribute, in this framework, to the development of maritime links between the two countries, in order to support the growth of exchanges that are already very significant today, but also to offer passengers a service better adapted to the evolution of their needs.
Our ambition is to continue this dynamic and gradually strengthen GNV’s contribution to exchanges between Tunisia and Europe.”
