We speak exclusively to John Warner, the general manager at Swan Hellenic, about the British brand’s relaunch and two new ships being built.
Following the sad announcement that British cruise line Cruise & Maritime Voyages had entered administration this week, it was welcome news yesterday (22 July) that Swan Hellenic, a 70-year-old British discovery cruise brand, has resurrected as a cultural cruise line.
Swan Hellenic, which has been purchased from G Adventures by a new consortium, with offices in Cyprus, Monaco and the UK, is in the process of building two expedition cruise ships at the Helsinki Shipyard Oy in Finland.
Each state-of-the-art ship will comprise 76 cabins and will accommodate 152 passengers and 120 staff.
The first ship will launch at an event in London in November 2021, before setting sail for Antarctica. The second will launch in April 2022 from St Petersburg en route to the British Isles and Iceland, before repositioning to the Arctic in summer 2022.
Speaking exclusively to Cruise Trade News, Swan Hellenic general manager, John Warner (who is also MD of Russian river cruise company Vodohod), has been very pleased by the response the brand has received following the announcement, which comes in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I think it has been great to have a positive news story when the news has not been so positive,” he said.
“This has been a project on the go for a while and we probably would have looked to be in the market a little earlier than now, but obviously world events took over and we felt it wouldn’t be the right time. Then we canvased some of our peer group and people said it would be a positive news story so we decided now was a good time to get the word out.”
While some would argue that now was not the most prudent time to relaunch a cruise line, one could also argue that Swan Hellenic’s small-ship, expedition-style of cruising is very much in line with what looks to be like an even bigger trend for cruising post-Covid-19, as people look for more intimate and off-the-beaten-track experiences.
For Warner, this is also something that has been intrinsic with the brand since its inception.
“The slight irony that actually this idea of a small, intimate ship travelling to far-flung destinations, all of those traits are brand propositions that Swan Hellenic exhibited from the get-go.
“And that’s part of the reason why we wanted to utilise the existing brand and we felt that the tenets from when it was inaugurated in the UK in 1950 are arguably even more valuable today than they were then. So I think in that case we’ve set the trend.”
Asked how the brand has evolved since it first launched and what will set it apart from other expedition cruise lines, Warner said:
“One of the main evolutions will be the hardware we have been bringing out. The two ships are state-of-the-art and cutting edge.”
One of the hardware elements Warner is referring to is the PC5 hull that will feature on the ships, which will enable them to visit places other expedition ships, particularly in polar regions, wouldn’t be able to go.
In terms of where they position themselves in the market, Warner is keen to steer clear of the word ‘luxury’, preferring the term ‘five-star’ to describe their offering.
He commented: “We are definitely five-star and are offering a design-led ship. We are on the upper end of the market, but we don’t want to be tagged as luxury.
“We want our ships to be beautiful, elegant and understated, but also for the emphasis to be on the service that guests receive, the programmes, the food and the experiences as this is about enriching people’s lives through travel.”
Warner and his team – which includes senior vice president, sales and marketing, Alfredo Spadon (formerly of MSC Cruises and Silversea) and vice president of marketing, Mario Bounas (formerly of Royal Caribbean International) – will be reaching out to the travel agent community over the coming weeks and months, as Warner believes they will be integral to the success of the brand moving forward.
“We have always worked with the agent community, we have extraordinary talent in the travel industry, particularly in the UK, and I think that type of expertise is very underappreciated, but certainly not by us.
“We have been people who can act as an ambassador for your brand who know just about cruising and the experience and we can offer them a product and they can represent us fantastically well.
“We are very keen to reach out to the agent community and part of our launch message yesterday was to say to that group of people that it has been a very rough time, but we very much want to work with you and provide a ray of sunshine.
“Our belief is that this going to be a product sold globally, but also up and down the high street through the agent community because they have a wealth of experience and expertise to bring.”
Warner and the team will be working on a series of initiatives, including developing online marketing collateral, to help agents promote the brand, details of which will be shortly announced.
In terms of long-term, Warner confirms that there are plans in place to expand the fleet following the launch of the two inaugural ships.
Visit swanhellenic.com for more information.