STARTUP brand Atlas Ocean Voyages has arrived to bring change to the expedition sector – but that does not mean the company is shying away from its DNA as a cruise line, president & chief executive officer James Rodriguez (pictured) has insisted. Atlas, which sails to the polar regions, as...
STARTUP brand Atlas Ocean Voyages has arrived to bring change to the expedition sector – but that does not mean the company is shying away from its DNA as a cruise line, president & chief executive officer James Rodriguez (pictured) has insisted.
Atlas, which sails to the polar regions, as well as the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and the Caribbean, is set on offering an expedition-style product in every destination it visits, Rodriguez explained to Cruise Weekly.
“The programming aspect of it is extremely important for us, to expand this idea of what an expedition can be…that’s how I think we’re going to innovate and grow this in the future,” the Atlas head said.
“We are a year-round expedition product…every voyage that we have is an expedition, whether it be a polar expedition, an epicurean expedition, or a cultural expedition…we program them in the same manner that we would program an Antarctic or an Arctic voyage,” he said.
However, Atlas’ commitment to a different take on sailing does not mean it is moving away from its identity as a cruise line.
This is despite many other younger brands, including some hotel companies entering the sector, choosing to distance their products from cruising adjacency, Rodriguez explained.
“We are a cruise company first, we’re programmed as that…I like to say we’re a cruise company that just happens to have hotel rooms,” he said.
“There is a certain aspect of a cruise guest that you can’t disrespect…cruisers love the cruise experience, and when hotel brands come in and say, ‘we’re not a cruise product, we’re a hotel product, we just happen to have a ship’, it doesn’t encourage other cruisers to try their product,” he added. MS
