Tough Times for Expedition Cruise Operators
We have seen plenty of offers from the main cruise lines to attract business. But the small ship and expedition business seems to have been having an even worse time of heading into this recession. Recently, we have seen $2,000 air credits, free flights to Antarctica, 40% reductions and two for one offers from several small ship or expedition companies.
The article goes on to mention that Quark Expeditions has cancelled the entire Arctic season for its iconic "flag ship" the conventional icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. Also, there was a cancellation of the final 2009 Arctic voyage on the ice-strenghtened vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov as well as the first departure from Murmansk to the North Pole on the nuclear icebreaker 50 Years of Victory.
Quark Expeditions has been operating the 112-berth Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in the Canadian Arctic, traversing the Northwest Passage and other waters every summer for the last fifteen years, while the 50 Years of Victory has just recently replaced its better-known sister ship, Yamal which has done these icebreaking voyages to the North Pole in previous years.Although there has been a large amount of consolidation in the expedition voyage business, with TUI Travel taking over Quark Expeditions, Peregrine Adventures and Clipper Cruise Line's non-US flag operations, this industry has had a particularly hard time of it. While cruise lines have been happy to get targeted volumes, admittedly at much lower fares and yields, expedition companies have been desperately seeking to attract enough business.
Other companies have recently undertaken huge investments to acquire and convert new vessels for their purpose of expedition cruising, and are now exposed to both the current downturn in bookings as well as serious delays in their conversion schedules:
GAP's new ship, the 120-berth Expedition, now being converted from a Scandinavian ferry, will commence operations in the Azores this April and will then go on charter to Spitsbergen Travel for the summer. After having lost the Explorer in November 2007, the Expedition, as her replacement, was to have been ready for the 2008/09 Antarctic season, so this will now mean two seasons for GAP without their own ship in the Antarctic.

And GAP Adventures - whose last vessel was the "Little Red Ship" which I covered extensively when she sank in Antarctic waters in November 2007, are not the only ones to suffer such setbacks:

As with GAP, Oceanwide's latest ship, the 112-berth Plancius, has also been delayed. Initially due to have entered service in June 2009 in Spitsbergen waters, she will now not be ready until the 2009/10 Antarctic season in November. In the meantime Oceanwide is offering reductions of up to 30% on some February and March 2009 Antarctic departures and 25% on certain 2009/10 departures by the 49-berth Professor Molchanov, including some 12- to 21-night itineraries that are not set to depart until much later this year. One of these, the 21-night departure, was a full charter that was cancelled.
Also, not mentioned in this article but also slightly delayed was the latest addition to the National Geographic fleet, the National Geographic Explorer which was supposed to be ready in Spring 2008 but was delayed by several months and could only commence operations at the end of the Arctic season 2008.

There was some consolation in these desperate times, but only for some:
One operator that was able to take advantage of the present softness in the Antarctic market was Antarpply Expeditions of Ushuaia, whose 84-berth Ushuaia ran aground in early December. While out of commission for repairs for several weeks, her operators were able to find substitute space on other ships to protect their clients' holidays. In an ordinary season, this would have been difficult, if nor impossible, as most ships would have been sold out.

The article ends with a sobering statement:
In summary, it seems that destinations such as Alaska, the Antarctic and the High Arctic are often considered as "once in a lifetime" trips and many people are just saying "not this year."
It should be added that this market has traditionally been booked well in advance, and tour operators and travel agencies which could in earlier years be confident that they would sell them, had regularly reserved large allotments or even made down payments for whole charters. As these companies now get cold feet, they release or cancel their allotments or charters, and this is probably responsible for a large part of this sudden appearance of so many unsold berths.
Labels: Antarctic Stuff, Arctic Stuff, Expedition cruise, News







