Warm water destinations are the biggest growth area within expedition cruising, according to experts

Japan, The Kimberly and French Polynesia have been cited as the destinations with the most potential for growth in the coming years, expedition cruise line leaders told Cruise Trade News during a roundtable discussion held at the second annual CLIA Expedition Showcase in Svalbard.

While the lines said the polar regions will always be popular with adventurers, there is a natural progression from customers who have ticked off the poles to booking warmer water destinations as they continue their desire to travel to lesser-visited places.

Additionally, operators predicted Japan will be an extremely popular choice with customers moving forward, with Bernie Carter, director of sales at Atlas Ocean Voyages saying: “We haven’t even begun to see how big this destination is going to be.”

He continued: “Kimberly is already popular and it definitely going to grow in popularity, but I think in-depth Japan is the next big thing because there are so many islands you can visit on an expedition.”

Vladislav Saveliev, UK sales manager Midlands and south for PONANT, agreed and said: “The polar regions will always be popular, but outside of them, Japan is going to be big as is French Polynesia which is a region with so much history, culture and nature and it’s perfect for those special occasion events and for those customers who have already been everywhere else.”

Luke Clark, senior sales director UK, Ireland, Africa and India for Swan Hellenic, said: “I agree with that. If I had to put money on which destination is going to be the next big thing then I would say Japan which has sold so much better than I expected.

“Asia Pacific is a fairly new programme for us and we initially struggled to fill it with UK passengers. However, now some people have travelled there, and now that we’ve seen the Instagram stories and the posts that came out of last year, it’s ticking along nicely from the UK and bookings are coming in for 2027-28 so the growth for us is definitely in the warm water destinations.”

He added: “Having said that the best-selling voyage we have in our entire programme is New Zealand and I think that will continue.”

Andrew Turner, sales director EMEA for AE Expedition, said: “Expedition is so much more than polar, and our biggest growth has come from the warm water. I now talk more about warm water than I do about the poles.”