Ponant Explorations Group is mulling pairing up back-to-back sailings of its voyages across its brands including expedition, river and land, LATTE can exclusively reveal.
Currently in Australia from her home in Rome, Belinda Hindmarsh, Deputy CEO Global Business, Ponant Explorations Group hinted at the concept of “stitching together” voyages across the brands. Those brands include Ponant Explorations, Paul Gauguin Cruises and Aqua Expeditions.
Aqua Expeditions being the latest addition to the portfolio, having signed in January 2025 to the French-owned luxury expedition cruise brand.
Hindmarsh suggested the concept of ‘world voyages’ or ‘brand voyages’ could be next.
“We thought about it because people really want it. ‘When are you going to do a world tour?’ she paraphrased, quipping “how do you make a salad bar look interesting after 45 days?”
Subscribe to LATTE Cruise’s free eNewsletter to keep up to date with everything in the luxury cruise space.
But now, with Amazon and Mekong river cruising and boutique small-ship expeditions with Aqua Expeditions to locations such as the Galapagos and Indonesia under the wider PONANT brand umbrella, those opportunities can be tapped into.
“With PONANT, you could do a back-to-back-to-back, you build a land tour in the middle or go straight to Galapagos… there’s a lot of things that we do in the Caribbean that we could stitch up with Galapagos.”
“So this is the new thinking. It’s River, Land, Ocean stitched-up.”
The land element is packaged in-house by PONANT or through DMCs around the globe, including pre- and post-cruise packages.
“We have a huge product team that are really focused on guest experience, cultural elements, etc. And we’ve asked the team to move away from cruise and think about exploration and travel as a whole,
including the air component,” Hindmarsh said, noting that there has been a 49% growth in air being booked with cruises in the Asia Pacific region.
The Deputy CEO admitted that in the past, her mentality had been to always book with the supplier.
“When things go wrong, you want to deal direct with the airline, direct with the hotel. They will look after you better.”
“But I don’t believe that anymore. Book with one provider. Keep it simple, make it easy,” she said, citing a recent personal family situation with an airline she holds high status recognition with, but was left in the lurch at the 11th hour recently.On the wider offering, Hindmarsh hinted that PONANT would look to take advantage of being part of the wider Artemis Group, and lean into sister brands such as The Pinault Collection, and accessing private viewings of some of the world’s largest collections of contemporary art.
Beyond the addition of Aqua Expeditions, Hindmarsh said PONANT is “always looking around” at other potential acquisitions, “but there’s nothing immediate” given the new-build team’s focus on the ‘Swap2Zero’ CO2 emissions-free ship project, flagged for 2030.
Hindmarsh also told LATTE there’s plenty of other regions across Europe that Ponant Explorations is keen to unlock, or offer increased frequencies to.
Lesser visited ports in the Greek Islands, and “not your go to destinations, but mind blowing”. Destinations that easily accessible from the ship, with long stops should guests wish to get on and off and have lunch or dinner in town, or head to a beach, visit landmarks, she said.
Hindmarsh was adamant about European river cruising not being on PONANT’s agenda. That comes hours before Lindblad Expeditions’ announcement that it has partnered with Transcend Cruises to offer European River Cruising from 2026.
“We’re not doing river Europe. That’s not us. We’re much more adventurous than that. But definitely not,” she said.
Similarly, when questioned by LATTE if a second LNG-powered ice-breaker like Le Commandant Charcot was being considered for the future, Hindmarsh said it had been mulled at one time, but now is completely off the radar. “That’s a hard no,” she said.
On the acquisition of Aqua Expeditions, Hindmarsh gushed over the team lead by Founder/CEO Francesco Galli Zugaro.
“Francesco and the team are a strong fit with what we are already doing. But for now, they are very destination focused so we are leaving our two operating teams apart. They also have a strong sales force, are experts at what they do. They are doing an amazing job.
“What we’re trying to do is take the ‘best of’, and find synergies while we’re not integrating.”
Aqua Expeditions’ newest destination will be East Africa – Madagascar, East Africa, Seychelles – with some “new concepts” in the pipeline, Hindmarsh told LATTE. “It’s very exciting so we’re letting them focus on that.”
Lead image: Captain David Marionneau, Ponant’s Director of Marine Operations Asia Pacific; Deb Corbett, CEO Asia Pacific, Ponant Explorations Group; Belinda Hindmarsh, Deputy CEO, Global Business; Charles Boutet, Marketing and Communications Director, Asia Pacific, PONANT.
