Page 6 - 2020 CIN Expedition Market Report

EXPEDITION
MARKET

Accelerating

Viking is entering the expedition market with at least two newbuilds. The Viking Octantis debuts in early 2022 in Antarctica.

Countless new expedition ships are poised to enter the
market in 2020, 2021 and beyond, building upon a new
fleet that started hitting the water in volume in 2018.

The next 36 months will see the introduction of ap- For those with capacity growth concerns, the modern-day
proximately 7,000 newbuild berths to the expedition market; cruise industry has grown profitably every year since start-
while this is huge for the market segment, it is the equivalent ing service from Miami in the 1960s.
of less than two new megaships.

Expedition ships are small, generally in the 200-guest
range, and take passengers to destinations the big ships can’t Diversified Market
get to. They offer a premium or luxury onboard product at
a high ticket price. They have ice-class hulls, allowing them Against other segments within the cruise industry, the
to safely operate in the Polar Regions, while zodiacs, kayaks expedition market may be the most diverse of them all, with
and other toys are ready for guests, enabling them to kayak competitors offering unique product propositions.
in Antarctica or set foot on the seventh continent.
There are three- to five-star Antarctica experiences rang-
Capacity Growth Concerns ing from eight-day cruises to month-long treks into the Ross
Sea.
The brands growing in the expedition space have, so far,
shown they can still command high ticket prices while tak- There are experiences available on basic but rugged and
ing guests to off-the-beaten destinations as the Polar Regions repurposed Russian research ships, as well as six-star prod-
dominate deployment. ucts, with a butler waiting for each guest upon their return.

Driving the market has not only been the introduction of National products include some full-ship charters for the
new capacity but wealthy world travelers that have been just Chinese market, as well as French- and German-speaking
about everywhere. Next stop: Antarctica. products. The vast majority of customers, however, come
from North America.
The expedition market has attracted the wealthy with its
transition from mainly Russian research ships to a fleet of Deployment
purpose-built expedition cruise ships. Social media, and the
concept of posting a photo of a penguin, has also driven the While Antarctica is where the money is made, it is, at
surge. most, a five-month market stretching from November to
March.

The traditional philosophy has been to move the ship to
the Arctic for the summer, where the market isn’t as strong.

8 Cruise Industry News: 2020 Expedition Market Report