As cruise ships get bigger and bigger, Ponant has stayed true to its form, building luxury expedition ships that are French flagged, with the idea “to create special relationships between the oceans of the world and people sailing on them,” said the CEO of Ponant Americas, Navin Sawhney.

Ponant’s specialization is in expedition ships, vessels that allow guests to see the most exciting and distant destinations while at the same time, thanks to their size, feeling like “you are one with the ocean and the destination that you sail in.”

“What Ponant saw as a void that we could fill was that the tastes of the consumer were changing. They wanted to go on expeditions, they wanted to understand and immerse themselves in destinations beyond [what] existed in the 80s and 90s,” Sawhney said during a virtual panel discussion.   

“We were the first who purpose built ships that combined [a rustic] element with luxury, with the destination experience when we launched the Boreal-class ships in 2010, and we continue that tradition with the explorer class ships.”

Over in California, some twelve years earlier, another cruise company was born – Uniworld, offering voyages on riverboats in Europe.

Uniworld does not take customers to the most distant locations over the oceans but provides them with the experience of boutique hotels onboard its river ships, all while staying not far from river shores

“On a river ship, you’re never out to sea, you’re always close to land and close to seeing something. And you’re going to these wonderful little villages and places that you probably would never think of going if you weren’t on a river ship that took you there. The larger ocean ships cannot get to these places,” explained President and CEO of Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, Ellen Bettridge.

Bettridge said that Uniworld saw a niche in creating luxury and the feeling of uniqueness on river ships.

“They came in and saw that all the river ships were very predictable with what they were going to have and offer. They all looked exactly the same, and you wouldn’t even know what ship you were on… What we set out to do was to create each ship on the Uniworld fleet as an experience for the customer, a luxury experience… We thought: how do we transport [boutique hotel luxury] onboard the ship?”

Since Ponant’s launch, ssaid Sawhney, there has been a surge in small shipbuilding.

“But for us, it’s part of our DNA, it’s not part of a narrative… it’s a part of who we are.”