“The new thing for Australis this year is that we’re (finally) going to operate,” Sales Director for North America Felipe Castro Toovey said, according to 2021 Expedition Market Report by Cruise Industry News.
Chilean cruise line Australis runs a seasonal program of short cruises in the fjords of the Chilean side of Patagonia on its two 210-passenger sister ships: the Stella and the Ventus. Because of a very short period of sunlight during South America’s winter period, the cruise line only operates in the region’s summer period: late September to early April.
“We didn’t have a season between September 2020 and April 2021. But now we have confirmed our schedule with our two main vessels. The Stella is based in Punta Arenas, and the Ventus is based in Ushuaia. And we flip them on four-night cruises. So, you can do a one-way cruise, getting on in Ushuaia and getting off in Puntarenas or exactly the opposite. Or you can take the eight nights with one or do a sort of combination,” Castro Toovey explained.
He said the cruise line was very excited to start sailing again on Sept. 25, 2021.
“Those are the ideas that we are selling today. Hopefully, everything will be strongly booked in the next month in order to operate the season,” he said.
The vaccination program in Chile is going well and giving hopes of a safe and successful season, too, Castro Toovey said. At least a half of Australis’ guests usually come from Europe, mainly the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. 35 percent come from North America (of which the overwhelming majority is from the U.S.). The rest, around 10 percent, come from everywhere else in the world, including South America, Australia and New Zealand.
Australis’ average passenger is getting younger, according to Sales Support & Marketing Manager for North America, Andrea Narvaez.
“I joined the company around three years ago, and the average age then was 60-65 years old. Now, that average age has dropped to 55. We’ve been receiving a lot of younger generations, a lot of millennials as well. Our signatures excursion is Cape Horn, and that’s actually a bucket list destination,” she said.
