Exploration evolves: Signature Travel Network’s Karl Kannstadter on the new era of expedition cruising: Travel Weekly

Jamie Biesiada

Expedition cruising is hot right now, and Signature Travel Network’s Karl Kannstadter, vice president of content strategy for exploration, has a theory why.

Kannstadter has been with the member-owned cooperative for the last few years focusing on exploration, which he defines as active and adventure travel, expedition cruising and safaris. Before Signature, he held posts with Silversea Cruises and Quark Expeditions.

As to the current popularity of expedition cruising, Kannstadter said, up until the past five years or so, the ships used were retired research vessels. Sometimes they were retired or still-working icebreakers.

“They weren’t designed as expedition ships,” Kannstadter said. “[Cruise lines] had to figure out workarounds, and they worked, but there was always something that maybe was a little clunky about it.”

But in the last five years, purpose-built expedition ships have hit the water.

Their design is more thoughtful, according to Kannstadter, as are operational aspects like how Zodiacs are launched and retrieved.

“I think that message is getting out to the public now, and the public is saying, ‘Oh, OK, so it’s not going to be uncomfortable,'” he said. “They have stabilizers, for example; multiple dining rooms as opposed to a cafeteria. And the suites that we would be used to on a contemporary or a premium or a luxury ocean-going vessel.

“I think it’s sort of a matter of, if you build it, they will come,” he added.

It’s a sharp contrast from the early expedition cruising product that was available. 

For instance, Kannstadter first went to Antarctica in 2002 with Quark Expeditions (he wasn’t working for Quark at the time, that was just a coincidence). It was onboard a Russian icebreaker that Quark had chartered.

The accommodations were “rudimentary,” he said. There was a cafeteria-style dining area and, in some of the cabins, fold-down berths to sleep on. The ship did not have a stabilizer.

“You can see that some people would have not been attracted to that, and said, ‘Interesting, but not for me,'” he said.

The next evolution came when the market realized there was interest in expedition cruising and began repurposing ocean-going cruise ships with comfortable cabins. But that introduced a lot of clunkiness, Kannstadter said, because they didn’t have bays to drive the Zodiacs into.

“It’s just been this evolution over time of more and more toward, as it became more popular, let’s build ships to accommodate this demand, and then they will come — and they’re coming in droves,” he said.

The Arctic, Antarctica and the Galapagos are all popular destinations. When Antarctica’s season, which runs from October to March, ends, those ships tend to head to the northern U.K., Iceland and Norway, before making their way south again, Kannstadter said. 

He pointed to two emerging expedition cruising destinations: Greenalnd and the Kimberley coastline in Australia. The east and west coasts of Africa are also growing in popularity, as are the Seychelles, Madagascar and Indonesia.

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