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Ponant to woo UK market with pound-based pricing, Nat Geo partnership and new ships

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Ponant's Le Lapérouse berthed close to London's Tower Bridge
Ponant took the opportunity of Le Lapérouse’s overnight stay in London Wednesday to showcase its newest ship and first Explorer class vessel to UK media and travel partners.

On-board, Ponant’s international sales director Stephen Winter spoke about the recently reported strategic partnership with National Geographic which will offer an extensive range of expedition cruises throughout the world, targeting customers in Australia, Asia Pacific, UK, Europe and Africa.

‘There will be nine such itineraries in 2019, rising to 20 in 2020 and 40 in 2021, ‘ noted Winter.

130 itineraries have been designed for the next four years, with prices per person in the UK starting from £2,700, ‘about 10-15% higher than normal Ponant sailings, ‘due to the additional richness of the product offering brought by National Geographic Expeditions,’ Nabil Maillard, sales developer for UK & Ireland told Seatrade Cruise News.

National Geographic Expeditions will provide a range of expedition resources on-board, including leading experts and National Geographic photographers to travel with all guests to create an immersive and quality experience.

Core destinations will be the Antarctic and Arctic, which will be complemented by a range of global expeditions covering all continents.

Also onboard in London, Nathan Philpot, travel director, National Geographic Partners (Europe & Africa) commented about the tie up: ‘it marks a milestone in growing our expeditions business across Europe. In Ponant, we have a luxury partner with European flair that has experience in traveling to ambitious locations, along with an expansive travel agent network together with call centres and websites in English, French and German.’ 

Pricing in pounds for British market

Looking specifically at UK passenger sourcing Winter said, ‘it is a highly competitive market but one that we have set ambitious targets for and think we can reach them through a combination of our newbuild programme (there are six more ships to come by 2021 including a 30,000gt luxury hybrid icebreaker powered by LNG) plus the introduction of specific pricing in British pounds from March next year rather than having to convert from Euro pricing to pounds and exchange rate fluctuations and the National Geographic partnership and an expanded sales team in the UK.’

Not so Blue Eye

Star attraction with the UK & Ireland day visitors on the ship tour was the Blue Eye lounge – a fleet first for Ponant which will feature on all six Explorer ships. The multi-sensorial underwater lounge allows passengers to discover and experience the underwater world via two large portholes in the form of a cetaceous eye, looking out on to the sea bed. Unfortunately during yesterday’s visit to London imagination had to come into play as the murky waters of the River Thames were not conducive to underwater sightseeing.