China Is Second Largest Source Market for Expedition Cruises

The future of adventure travel may end up being found in China, which has become the second largest source market for expedition cruise guests.

HHTravel is at the forefront of guest sourcing in the Chinese market. The company is run under Ctrip, China’s leading online travel agency, with HHTravel focusing on high-end clientele, according to the 2018 Expedition Market Report.

Doreen Lin oversees cruise and Antarctica offerings out of a Shanghai office.

“We have a team of six just focusing on expedition cruises, researching destinations, itineraries, customer needs and programming,” she told Cruise Industry News.

Lin said the expedition market in China was growing at a phenomenal rate.

“For the four-month Antarctica season, which is the bulk of our expedition market, we used to offer 12 sailings per month in 2015 when we started. This past season, we were selling 29 sailings per month,” Lin said.

In addition, this past season, Feizhu, a subsidiary of Alibaba specializing in online travel bookings, chartered four Antarctica sailings and sourced around 2,000 Chinese passengers in total. It plans to charter five sailings in 2019 and grow sourcing by 25 percent.

For Lin, high-end Chinese guests want to go on expedition cruises.

“Seventy percent of our cruise business is expedition,” she said, “and it’s almost all to Antarctica, although we are seeing customers now looking at sailings in Iceland, the Arctic, the Galapagos and coastal Norway. These are clients who have already done Antarctica and are looking for something new.”

And to some extent, the expedition market in China has seen some of the same bumps as the traditional cruise market: travel agents overextending themselves with full-ship charters.

“Some agents had full sailings but were unable to fill cabins, hence the market was very unruly and some agents suffered huge losses,” she said. “Now agents have moved towards a few cabins or chartering in blocks, depending on how many clients they have.”

HHTravel will send one Chinese guide per 10 guests on sailings.

For these high end clients, the travel guide serves as a butler of sorts, taking care of all their schedules, supplies and need-to-know information.

HHTravel also provides translators onboard.

“We will also provide thoughtful gestures like waterproof clothes and inclusive WiFi,” Lin said. “WiFi is a critical product for Chinese guests who like to share their travels on social media instantly; however, poor reception in remote areas is still a barrier.”
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