LUXURY EXPEDITIONS TAKE OFF AND HEAD TO NZ

Gerard Murphy of Bon Voyage Cruises & Travel looks at the rapid growth in luxury expedition cruising and why we will see these ships down under!

The Oxford dictionary defines “Expedition” as “journey undertaken by a group of people with a particular purpose, especially that of exploration or research”. In days gone by this may have implied long days travelling under trying conditions, with basic food and nights under canvas. The quest for discovery and exploration over-riding any discomfort.

In the days of BBC World and Animal Planet beaming exploration and discovery into our living rooms in high definition you could be forgiven for thinking that real life expeditions are an endangered activity. In fact, the opposite is true with such programming inspiring people to get off the sofa and out into the world, but with many wanting to explore retaining some of their home comforts.

While expedition cruising is just a small fraction of the world-wide cruise market, under 3%, the growth has been rapid in the past few years with 18 different companies building 34 new ships between this year and 2022. This rapid growth does make me wonder where all the expedition leaders and naturalist experts will come from?

Three of these companies are almost local with Australian cruise lines, Scenic, Aurora and Coral Discovery also in the market for new ships, most of which will cater for between 100 – 200 passengers. They can be as small as 30 passengers up to 500 passengers. A number are LNG or hybrid electric powered and several are in the ice-breaker class. What all these new vessels have in common though are environmentally friendly technologies, exploration and off-ship capabilities, with compromising a level of comfort usually reserved for luxury boutique hotels.

The sector has grabbed the attention of some of the luxury ocean cruise lines like Crystal and Viking and major cruise lines like Royal Caribbean who last year purchased 67% of Silversea Cruises, a luxury line which has operated an expedition arm for over 10 years with four ships carrying between 100 and 250 passengers. Within weeks Silversea announced an order for a brand-new expedition ship for the Galapagos islands.

New Zealand’s Fiordland, scenic islands like Great Barrier and Stewart Island are easily with reach already. Our lesser known jewels of the Sub-Antarctic islands will certainly be on the must visit list for a number of these companies. Ponant has already been offering sold-out cruises for several years alongside the more old school, old ship traditional expedition companies, and next summer Silversea returns to the area with ice-rated Silver Discoverer cruising from Dunedin, with one cruise venturing as far south as the Ross Sea for five days in Antarctica – a rare offering from our ports indeed.

Silversea’s expedition ships explore some of the most remote regions of the planet with their small size allowing them to take you up close. As they say it’s like an “Access All Areas” pass. On each cruise they carry between 11-28 qualified expedition leaders, or around 1 leader per 10 passengers. While these ships won’t offer big shows or casinos, daily lectures and briefings by these experts, whether they be naturalists, ornithologists, geologists, historians or photographers have everyone primed the next day’s adventures.

Seabourn, while not in the expedition category does offer scenic zodiac tours and off the ship kayaking on a fabulous Auckland to Auckland circumnavigation of NZ, including a number of our smaller ports, just after Christmas this year. Like Silversea and Ponant they are offering overseas tourists and locals a wonderful opportunity to take a journey of discovery without giving up any of the creature comforts. I am sure other luxury expedition cruise lines will follow in their wake and I for one look forward to welcoming them to NZ.