Rare AussieBoyTX Posted May 23, 2022 #1 Share Posted May 23, 2022 (edited) There was a long interview with Hervé Gastinel published in the Belgian newspaper, La Libre over the weekend. It's a long article, unfortunately behind a paywall & in French. Here are some highlights: COVID has permanently changed cruising (in come cases accelerating trends Ponant had already identified. There is a need to travel better instead of traveling more. This drives the Explore to inspire strategic plan, explore to inspire, understand, learn and share. First is the ecological footprint of the cruises -- make cruising a clean mode of travel, respectful of the environment. This includes emissions, recycling, wastewater treatment and more. Second is content -- increasing passenger enrichment eventually arriving at 1-1 passenger crew ratio and offering discovery & sharing through naturalists, expedition leaders, guides & culture speakers. Third is internationalization -- less French and more oriented towards other nationalities. Outside the Covid period, Ponant carries 70 to 80,000 passengers per year, first Americans (45%), followed by Europeans (40%) and Asia-Pacific (15%). The war in Ukraine has limited repercussions, aside from rerouting cruises in Black & Baltic Seas and Arctic. Ponant has a dozen Ukrainian staff members. Fuel prices are an issue. The company has decided not to raise rates this year, but anticipate a 5% increase next year. This emphasizes the benefits of e.g. Le Ponant. Ponant has about 2,500 sailors and nearly 600 people on land https://www.lalibre.be/economie/entreprises-startup/2022/05/21/la-guerre-en-ukraine-nous-a-obliges-a-repositionner-certaines-croisieres-qui-passaient-en-mer-noire-baltique-et-en-arctique-russe-S6K5AQF3SZBIFOA7G7FFOYS4HY/ Edited May 23, 2022 by AussieBoyTX 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare highplanesdrifters Posted May 24, 2022 #2 Share Posted May 24, 2022 Thanks much for the highlights. Very interesting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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