Agents should focus on expedition cruises closer to home, says Silversea MD

Agents should consider selling expedition cruises “closer to home”, according to Silversea’s UK & Ireland managing director.

Peter Shanks told the Advantage Latitude Conference on board Ambience: “An expedition is unlike any other form of travel, it’s thrilling, it’s awe-inspiring, and it’s humbling as well. When you go to these parts of the world, it’s the ultimate in bucket list travel, but my advice is move it from the bucket list to the booking list.”

He stressed expedition cruises were “commercially appealing” for agents as the average commission was £3,000.

Shanks also highlighted global expedition capacity had increased 200% between 2017 and 2023 and there was a trend for people to “get hooked on expeditions” and repeat, even when they first saw it as only a bucket list item.

He went on to tackle potential misconceptions about expedition cruising around price, destination and target audience.

On the first point he advised agents “not to lead on price” in conversations about expedition cruises.

“Price comes way down the conversation. They are reassuringly expensive. People get the value when you start the conversation about expedition. Price is the wrong place to start,” he said.

On the destination front, Shanks said: “Closer to home is important, because lots of the iconic expedition destinations are a long way away, but there are more and more closer to home destinations in Northern Europe, the British Isles, the Mediterranean and Fjords in 2025 doing the most amazing in-depth expeditions.”

The top four expedition destinations include Antarctica, the Arctic, the Galapagos and the Kimberly Islands near Australia, which show there are warm water as well as cold water destinations.

Repositioning expedition ships from Antarctica in the winter to the Arctic in the summer also mean there are opportunities in Africa, Asia and South America, Shanks said.

On whom to potentially target with an expedition cruise, he said there was “good news” as agents in the room “already know them”.

“You are already working with them looking after their travel arrangements. They just don’t know they’re going on expedition just yet,” he explained.

“They’re adventurous, curious travellers. They love going on luxury touring holidays. They love going on an Audley holiday to Sri Lanka. They love going on a really upscale holiday to Asia. They love the flop and drop in Mauritius and the Maldives. These are guests that you’re already looking after who are prime people to try an expedition.”

He added the core target audience was Baby Boomers aged 60 to 75 years old, but more and more Gen X passengers aged 45 to 59 and multi-generation were going on expedition cruises.

Shanks also observed that Silversea did not see many people moving from a classic cruise to an expedition cruise, which meant it was “a great big hunting ground” for people who do not cruise ad people who like premium cruising are “prime targets” a well.

The priorities of expedition passengers were very different to to those of classic cruise, Silversea had uncovered in a recent survey, Shanks said.

Classic cruisers prioritise dining, the suite, an all-inclusive itinerary and destination, while for expedition cruise passengers the itinerary, destination, wildlife and shore excursions and safety were among the most important aspects of a cruise.

Shanks offered advice to agents to do research, undertake as much training as they can and talk to sales teams about one or two expedition destinations like Antarctica and Galapagos.

Getting on expedition ships and fam trips was also important and developing a champion within their business as the “go-to expedition expert” would also be helpful.

He suggested: “Carefully mine your database. You all know these guests already, but do the work to really try and identify who are the target people in your customer base.

“Plant the seed as it takes time to nurture. It takes some people 10  years to go from thinking about it to doing it. Our average booking time is about two years.”

He concluded his talk by urging agents to “be brave” and suggest expedition to guests who come in unsure of where they want to go next year.