'Expedition Cruising Brands - Industry Insight' Survey Results

When I decided to launch this survey couple of weeks ago, my primary goal was to bridge knowledge gap between what expedition cruising brands tell about themselves and how expedition cruising community perceives what matters most. This year also saw several new ships and brands launch their products for the first time adding more variety to the industry. Also, travel trade has traditionally played a key role in sales distribution for cruising brands, and so it only made sense to find out what travel community considers essential when deciding which brands to work with and promote to their clients.

Before discussing the results, it is important to mention this is a small-scale survey – I reached out to several members of my personal expedition cruising community network who work for expedition cruising brands, travel trade, media, and expedition field staff – and generalizations should be made cautiously. The results however could be used as an indicator of the professional community sector sentiment, and I would welcome any opportunities by larger travel trade publishers to replicate the survey at a larger scale.

The results

The size of the ships, itineraries offered, and brand reputation play a crucial role when deciding which brand the respondents decide to work with or for. For travel trade, another important factor in decision making was the commission levels offered. Leadership and a variety of activities also played a role while offering luxury product was the least important factor in decision making.

The size of the ships, itineraries offered, and brand reputation play a crucial role when deciding which brand the respondents consider to work for.

Similar responses were received when asked what are the key elements that define a successful expedition cruising brand- in addition to the size of the ships, and itineraries, having a knowledgeable and experienced expedition field staff was crucial. Great value, prioritizing experiences ashore versus onboard were additional elements mentioned in ‘other’ field. The growing importance of offering a sustainable product was evident in the answers to this question too.

A vast majority – over 75% of all respondents – feel that expedition cruising brands do not do enough to differentiate their product. If this is the case and professional expedition cruising community struggles to understand USPs of specific expedition cruising brands, perhaps this could serve as a trigger to the individual brands to reach out to their own travel trade community to learn how they could achieve this.

75% of respondents feel that expedition cruising brands do not do enough to differentiate their product.

Market oversaturation is the single largest threat the respondents see in the coming years to the individual brands and sector overall, followed by increasing complexity of requirements and permits to visit specific geographical locations and the shortage of experienced expedition field staff.

A focus on sustainability, keeping the size of the ships small, and offering unique, exclusive access to the places and experiences will be the key future trends in the industry in the next five years that will make brands stand out according to the respondents.

A focus on sustainability, keeping the size of the ships small, and offering unique, exclusive access to the places and experiences are the key future trends in expedition cruising.

Swan Hellenic’s Minerva, Ponant’s Commandant Charcot, Aurora Expeditions’ Sylvia Earle were the new ships the community were most excited about, followed closely by Lindblad’s Endurance and Quark’s Ultramarine. Swan Hellenic overall remains the brand to watch according to the respondents, as well as Aurora Expeditions, Ponant, and Hapag-Lloyd.

Couple of words on the demographics of respondents: 30% of respondents work for travel trade; 35% work for a specific expedition cruising brand; 10% as expedition field staff, and 20% chose the answer ‘other’ – ‘consultant’, ‘former lecturer’, ‘vlogger’ occupations were amongst the answers.

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Akvile Marozaite is a freelance consultant with experience in expedition cruising sales and operations. I help travel companies grow expedition cruising sales and share my passion for the industry here on LinkedIn and Twitter – let’s stay connected.

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