Aurora Expeditions\u2019 new UK managing director aims to boost agents\u2019\u00a0knowledge of the line\u2019s product\u00a0with a series of ship visits and a fam trip to Antarctica next year.<\/p>\n
Speaking to\u00a0Travel Weekly<\/em>,\u00a0five months into his new role at the expedition line,\u00a0Dewing plans to host ship visits in\u00a0Scotland and Ireland.<\/p>\n Industry veteran Jos Dewing previously spent 10 months as a consultant for SeaDream Yacht Club and held the chief executive role at Voyages to Antiquity for nearly five years prior that.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, he said: \u201cIn terms of the fam trip we\u2019ll work with [trade] partners\u00a0who need to understand us more because Aurora\u2019s one of those products that needs to be experienced.<\/p>\n \u201cThe expert guides, the small [excursion] groups and extraordinary level of experiences \u2013 it really is something that if you can understand it, you can sell it far better.\u201d<\/p>\n Next year, the line\u2019s Greg Mortimer ship is scheduled to cruise around Ireland in May, depart Oban\u00a0in May;\u00a0and Aberdeen in June.<\/p>\n Dewing said he wanted to invite as many agents as possible on the 132-passenger vessel.<\/p>\n He confirmed that the line would resume operations on January 8, 2022, with a 12-day Spirit of Antarctica sailing departing from Punta Arenas, Chile.<\/p>\n Due to Chile\u2019s high vaccination rate, Dewing\u00a0explained that Aurora had chosen Chile as an embarkation port rather than other South American countries. Currently, 74.4% of Chile\u2019s population has been fully jabbed.<\/p>\n On the recent red list reduction, Dewing added: \u201cWe did get to the point that we did not think that it was going to happen and then suddenly it happened. Now it\u2019s full steam ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the Australian expedition line has decided the launch sister vessel \u2013 called Sylvia Earle \u2013\u00a0in\u00a0spring 2022, according to Dewing. Sylvia Earle had been slated to launch in Antarctica next month.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the right time to operate one ship in Antarctica,\u201d Dewing explained, adding that the decision \u201cmade sense\u201d. \u201cGreg Mortimer is ready to operate now.\u201d<\/p>\n Dewing said that the line works with between 60 and 80 UK agents but numbers were rising. \u201cCruise specialists are ramping up their focus on expedition cruise,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are new names each week.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are agents that have clients who have been to Antarctica and want something more unique.<\/p>\n \u201cThen we\u2019ve got some polar partners who are knowledgeable about our business and can really develop it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dewing said his three-person UK team \u2013 including UK and Europe business development manager James Turner and Karen Hollands, who\u00a0oversees\u00a0reservations and sales support \u2013 works with a \u201creal mix\u201d of agents.<\/p>\n He estimates that Aurora\u2019s UK team has met with around 20 agencies this year. \u201cBeing there and being able to talk through things makes all the difference,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a unique product and there\u2019s real demand for it. We\u2019ve doubled capacity as we have two new ships. We need to work with new partners and we want to grow the UK business.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the line is \u201cperfectly placed\u201d to meet strong demand. \u201cWe\u2019re getting enquiries from new agents that we\u2019ve not worked with and a wider range of destination enquiries,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe [Aurora] were born in Antarctica but we\u2019re getting a lot more interest in the niche destinations that we sell like the Russian Far East. Wrangel Island is one of those destinations for guests that have done a polar expedition like Antarctica or Svalbard and want even more wilderness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe spend around three or four days circling Wrangel Island. It\u2019s growing in popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n Aurora has four departures between July and September in 2022 calling into Wrangel Island \u2013 around 60 miles north of Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aurora Expeditions\u2019 new UK managing director aims to boost agents\u2019\u00a0knowledge of the line\u2019s product\u00a0with a series of ship visits and a fam trip to Antarctica next year. Speaking to\u00a0Travel Weekly,\u00a0five months into his new role at the expedition line,\u00a0Dewing plans to host ship visits in\u00a0Scotland and Ireland. Industry veteran Jos Dewing previously spent 10 months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}