Luxury cruise lines outline 'opportunity' for UK to fill capacity left by declining markets

Luxury ocean, river and expedition operators have highlighted an opportunity for the UK trade to fill gaps left by declining numbers from other markets, including America and Australia, in the year ahead.

 

This comes as conflict in the Middle East rages on and travel disruption to global flight routes continues, impacting long-haul trips.

 

Speaking on a panel at the Ultra Luxury and Expedition Showcase on Uniworld Boutique River Cruises’ newest ship, SS Emilie, Ponant UK and Ireland general manager Anthony Daniels said there were “a couple of balancing acts” operators must consider, including changing booking windows and international demand resulting from geopolitical issues.

 

Daniels said: “The problem that we may all find is that it could very quickly turn into a buyer’s market this summer, if the Americans and the Australians aren’t going to travel to Europe, then all of a sudden there’s going to be inventory knocking around.

 

“That may be a new trend that we’ve all seen before because of all of the political incidents happening which may become an opportunity [for the UK] in the next couple of months or weeks, subject to what is happening.”

 

However, Daniels said luxury customers still wanted to “book way ahead” with the company’s 2027-28 season already nearly sold out.

 

He added the booking window for long-haul or longer sailings from the UK market was at least 12 to14 months ahead, and Ponant planned to launch new programmes at least 30 months before departure across the whole fleet to “enable that opportunity” for agents.

 

Daniels said he expected UK agents “to see a lot more” of Ponant’s “bigger and stronger team” tasked with developing the market. 

 

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises’ UK and Europe managing director Chris Townson said the luxury marketplace was in “a bubble” where its customers were “not getting hit by economic issues” and wanted to spend their money before they were taxed.

 

He said British travellers were “more resilient” than American customers, adding: “Even this week in terms of trading, we have got four Egypt bookings going in April which is a bit crazy, and other people are deferring travel to next year.

 

“Our long-haul traffic to Asia, to India, is still very bullish, but people are just booking it for 2027 and playing around with the opportunities.”

 

Speaking in a later presentation, Uniworld national account manager Lee Evanson said “given what was happening in the world”, there were “some pockets of space on certain itineraries”.

 

He added the luxury river cruise operator had launched a summer promotion offering cruises in a range of destinations, including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Provence and the Danube, from £1,999 per person, including flights, when booked by March 31.

 

Seabourn’s UK and EMEA sales director Tom Andrews echoed the point about the resilience of UK customers as he said they had more of an attitude of “not putting their lives on pause”.

 

Andrews added: “Because of the geopolitical situation, there could be opportunity in the UK market, because we’re going to have a bit more stock to sell in the Mediterranean and in Northern Europe which are strong markets for us, where we would still see a good chunk of Americans book those trades, but they’re becoming less willing to do so.”

 

He said it was not only due to the war in the Middle East, but also the Russia and Ukraine war that  meant Americans were “not that keen to travel east”, which would result in “more stock being pushed to the UK market”.

 

Meanwhile, Explora Journeys’ business relationship lead for the UK and Ireland Andrew Schweitzer predicted a stronger lates market and people booking more short-haul destinations.

 

Schweitzer said: “Last year, was a massive late period which blew my mind, especially for luxury to see people book in three or four weeks before travel.

 

“I’ve never seen that before anywhere, and we’ve still seen that a little bit at the moment where we still took a couple of bookings for Q1 just last week.”

 

He added: “Given the state of the world and everything that’s happening, we’ll probably see a lot of lot of people now booking closer to home, even if it’s not a replacement trip for what they’re meant to be going on, but an interim trip as well.”

 

On the subject of destinations, Hurtigruten’s UK account manager David Chidley said the Norwegian coastal specialist had seen Norway “moving up people’s bucket list” as it is far away from the conflict.

 

He said: “When people are looking for their next holiday and they don’t want to venture too far out of their comfort zone, we seem to be doing quite well because of that.”

 

Aqua Expeditions’ UK and Ireland regional sales manager Max Campos acknowledged the ongoing difficulty with disruption to airline routes, particularly with itineraries in Indonesia and on the Mekong in Vietnam and Cambodia.

 

“The trade represents 70% of our sales and we work well with them, but the problem could be with Asia itineraries if this Middle East airline disruption continues,” he said.