Explora Journeys charts a course to redefine ocean travel

Although Explora Journeys is on track to have a fleet of six ships by 2028 sailing on itineraries around the world, the company doesn’t actually define itself as an ocean cruise line. 

“We really define ourselves as a European luxury boutique hotel whose home is the ocean,” Chris Austin, president of North America at Explora Journeys told TravelPress Today at the W Hotel in Toronto yesterday ahead of an intimate media gathering.

Notably, he shared that the Aponte family, owners of parent company MSC Group, had a vision to create a new brand that redefined what ocean travel could be. 

“They wanted a sexy ship that was inspired by a superyacht – that’s very key – a ship inspired by a superyacht,” Austin said, adding that the company surveyed affluent travellers to help define and carve out the vision for the brand. “These 20,000 travellers we surveyed said they wanted space, they wanted choice, they wanted design and they wanted a slower travel experience. And we’ve grown warm hospitality into the mix, of course. We looked at all these pillars and they’re not that different from a hotel.”

The goal was not only to attract existing cruisers but also a segment of luxury travellers who have never set foot on a cruise ship before.

“If you look at how many people cruise, the biggest opportunity is designing a brand where your cruisers feel exceedingly welcome, but the non cruisers say: Why haven’t I done this before? And they fall in love with the experience immediately,” he shared. 

Explora Journeys’ Chris Austin and Patricia Di Benedetto

With two ships currently in operation, Explora Journeys is set to take delivery of Explora III ahead of schedule, allowing for a new revenue based preview journey from Genoa to Rome next July ahead of its inaugural cruise. While Explora I and Explora II are virtually identical, or twin sisters as he referred to them, he noted that III will have some notable differences. Although the ship is bigger by 60 feet because it’s shifting to LNG power, Austin said they are not cramming in more suites.

“We’re optimizing that space, not maximizing the space, because we could have basically put in 50 more ocean suite terraces and we’re not doing that at all. What we’re doing is increasing all the ocean residences, we’re increasing the penthouses… And one of the things we’re excited about, and this is coming from travel advisor feedback, we’re adding a second owner’s residence so we’ll have one on deck eight and one on deck seven,” he noted, adding that the fleet will expand to six ships by 2028. “This is the fastest ever launch of a new luxury ocean brand.”

Interestingly, Canada currently fluctuates between second and third place as the top source market for Explora Journeys.

“In any company, in any brand, in any industry, Canada is 10% of the population of the U.S., so to be that close in number I think speaks to how the Canadian business is going,” added Patricia Di Benedetto, business relationship lead for national and key accounts in Canada at Explora Journeys.

Fresh off the Mediterranean season with occupancy rates in the high 80s to low 90s, Austin said the Caribbean season for both ships is set to have similar occupancy rates.

“We’re very proud to be able to stand here tonight and speak of occupancy levels after only two years of operating. Being in the high 80s, the low 90s is perfectly where we want to be. We are not striving to be 110% – that’s not luxury,” he shared at the event. 

For more on our interview with Explora Journeys, check out the next issue of Travel Courier.