Expedition cruise operators which responded to ECN's Insights Report 2025/26, published on Thursday (11 December), confirmed 90% of bookings excluding flights are priced at £6,000 and 30% of overall bookings with flights are valued at more than £10,000 per person.
Travel trade professionals reported that 79% of bookings per person are worth more than £6,000 and 42% of bookings are over £10,000 per person.
Based on 20% commission rate, a tour operator who sells a £6,000 expedition cruise without flights would earn £1,200 from the booking.
An ECN Whitepaper – titled Building Better Partnerships with the Travel Trade – found the majority of tour operators would not work with an expedition cruise line if its commission rate was below 20%.
In the Insights Report, Akvile Marozaite, ECN's co-founder and chief executive, outlined how the expedition cruise market continues to grow.
She said: "The ratio of 70% new-to-brand versus 30% repeat guests indicates that the expedition cruise sector continues to attract a significant volume of first-timers, which means that the market is still growing and that marketing and partnerships are reaching new audiences."
Nearly 40% of respondents said their conversion rate from enquiry to booking was 40%, with 13% converting 10% or less of enquiries.
Market challenges
But, in terms of expedition cruise market challenges, operators cited overcapacity and market saturation as the leading threat as they did when ECN last published sector-specific data in 2023.
However, the second-most critical threat in 2025 is economic slowdown, reflecting broader global market uncertainty and its potential to restrain consumer spending on higher-priced, discretionary travel products, ECN added.
The third major threat remains increasing regulation affecting access to fragile destinations.
Galapagos, the Amazon, Arctic, Antarctica, West Africa, Indian Ocean and Kimberley were among the destinations that travel agents wanted to see more departures for.
“Growth in supply has continued over the last two years, but consumer demand, trade capability, and economic conditions are creating friction that the industry must actively manage," Marozaite added.
"To achieve sustainable growth, the industry must make a greater investment in trade training, education and fam trips, elevate brand differentiation, communicate clear values to offset price sensitivities, collaborate more closely to manage capacity and plan for regulatory constraints.”
ECN confirmed 20 expedition cruise operators and 94 travel advisors and wholesalers responded to the survey.
