The convergence of luxury and expedition cruising

The worlds of luxury and expedition cruising are overlapping more often these days.

Almost buried in the flood of news from Crystal Cruises about its dramatic expansion plans was the fact that its three new luxury ocean ships to be built at Lloyd Werft will be ice-rated. That opens more opportunities, modeled on Crystal’s innovative 32-day Northwest Passage cruise next summer.

But Crystal isn’t the only one expanding its expedition portfolio.

Last year, Seabourn mounted its first ever trip to Antarctica. Silversea Cruises added a third vessel, the Silver Discoverer, to its expedition fleet started in 2008.

Lindblad Expeditions recently completed a recapitalization and is planning to build two ships with part of the funding.

And Ponant, the French entrant in the luxury expedition market, is said to have received a buyout offer from a company affiliated with French billionaire Francois Pinault, according to media reports from Paris.

And there are other companies in the expedition segment that offer varying degrees of luxury to customers.

One thing driving the convergence of luxury and expedition is the need for luxury lines to broaden their appeal, especially to a younger generation. Expeditions can serve as a gateway to luxury for passengers who might otherwise find it too stuffy or geriatric for their tastes.

Naturally, passengers who have to zip around in a Zodiac or clamber about on the unsteady surface of a polar ice field are on average going to be younger than the classic luxury demographic.

Expedition also gets crossover customers from other types of adventure travel, rather than from the sources where purely luxury-oriented cruise lines tend to find their first-time passengers.

One thing that will distinguish Crystal in the expedition end of the luxury expedition market is the size of its ships, which at 1,000 passengers will be two to four times larger than other entrants in the field.

It remains to be seen if that kind of size will be an advantage or a hindrance in what has traditionally been a small-ship market.