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Med could benefit from more expedition ships as Polar Code compliance nears

Med could benefit from more expedition ships as Polar Code compliance nears
With new Polar Code compliance on the horizon at the beginning of 2017, many of the expedition ships currently sailing in the Arctic and Antarctic will disappear from these regions within five years and could end up in the Mediterranean or be scrapped, ship finance guru Hugo Modderman, md of Dolfinance, commented.

He was a panellist at Seatrade Cruise Med’s Upscale and Specialty Cruising in the Med session Wednesday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Modderman calculated the average age of the expedition fleet is 28 years old, as 'excluding the Ponant orders, no new ships have been delivered in this category for 20 years.’ He also said if all the speciality ships' berths currently were added, they'd total the quivalent of one Disney ship, ‘so I can’t see any over-capacity in this sector.’

He thinks Croatia, Greek and Italian islands would provide great fture deployment options for these older ships.

Giving a view on the destination/cruise line relationship regarding specialty cruise vessels, Elisabetta de Nardo, director port operations, Silversea Cruises, said, ‘Shipping (cruise line operators) and tourism (destinations) are like two very different people who have to work together for the rest of their lives’.

Matt Grimes, executive director, Viking Cruises, spoke of the newbie blue ocean company which he suggested will be the largest operator in the smaller ship sector in 2019. He talked about Viking's ‘tremendous success’ in Mediterranean operations, now entering a second year in the region, including winter cruising, which he said is ‘working well’.

New in 2018 will be shorter weekly open-jaw itineraries with calls in places such as St Tropez, Crotone, Bari and Sibenik. ‘We are fully port-focussed in our Med itineraries,' he said. Between 2015 and 2017 only around 10% of the fleet's time is spent at sea. In 2018 this sea time will shrink to just 2% with the introduction of more seven-night sailings.

Speaking from a port perspective, Mario Cano from Palamos, part of the six West Med Boutique Ports marketing group that jointly promotes itineraries and services targeted at luxury cruise lines, advocated the opportunity for ‘unknown’ ports to feature in the itinerary mix. Both the Silversea and Viking executives applauded the idea endorsing there is always room for more and new ports in the mix. And whilst neither currently calls in the Canary Islands, Grimes threw down the gauntlet to the islands ‘to sell it to me!’

Looking at source markets, Modderman suggested there is huge potential from Chinese, Indians and Russians (in that order) for for upscale and expedition cruising, however visa issues in all three currently prevent that potential being fully explored.