Catching up With Swan Hellenic’s Vice President of Sales for North America Joe Maloney

The Swan Hellenic brand has been around since the 1950s, but the current incarnation of the cruise line is brand new.

“Only the brand name was purchased by the current owners in 2019,” Joe Maloney, vice president of North American sales, told TMR. “It’s an entirely new ownership, entirely new fleet, entirely new mission objective. Everything’s different. The only thing that is the same is the name.”

Maloney joined the brand in May with the express goal of growing the brand’s presence among North American travel advisors. Because of the brand’s long history, Maloney didn’t have to start from scratch among advisors who have been around a long time, though many of these associated the brand with the European market. (It is headquartered in Cyprus and has an office in London.) But for others, Swan Hellenic is an unknown entity, something Maloney is working hard to fix.

“I don’t think we do a very good job yet of promoting the good story that we have to tell,” he said.

Despite its relatively unknown status in North America, travelers from the U.S. and Canada made up about 50% of all of Swan Hellenic’s bookings before Maloney started. Not a year later, and that’s up to 70%.

“The reason for the exponential growth and greater penetration in the North American market is due to quadrupling the number of agency sellers over the past year,” he explained. “The trade has embraced Swan Hellenic emphatically and we’re benefitting from partnerships increasing exponentially.”

See what others don’t
An expedition line that falls solidly into the luxury space, Maloney said Swan Hellenic has several key differentiators not everyone understands.

“Our mission is to ‘see what others don’t,'” Maloney explained. As such the line tries to provide a range of itineraries that go to places most other cruise lines don’t. Places like Socotra in the Red Sea, which Swan Hellenic visited in 2023 and hopes to go back to next year, or Southwest and West Africa. When sailing in more on-the-beaten-path destinations, such as the Mediterranean, itineraries feature lesser-known ports like Lipari in Sicily, Crotone (Italy), and Itea and Preveza in Greece.

To visit these lesser-known ports, Swan Hellenic has a fleet of two brand new expedition ships, with a third set to launch in the coming year. The Vega launched in 2022 and accommodates 152 passengers; the Diana launched in May 2023 and can hold 192 passengers. The third ship, Minerva, will be a sister-ship to the Vega.

The onboard experience is fairly inclusive with most drinks included, along with basic Wi-Fi and most excursions. Top-shelf liquor and high speed Starlink internet connectivity cost extra, as does a handful of optional excursions.

Differentiators
Because Swan Hellenic is a luxury line, Maloney told TMR he’s finds advisors most frequently compare it to lines like Seabourn, Ponant, and Scenic, which offer a luxury expedition product. But Maloney believes Swan Hellenic more accurately falls somewhere between these and some of the more traditional expedition cruises.

Like the luxury lines, the ships are beautiful and the food is a highlight. For its onboard menu, Swan Hellenic has partnered with JRE-Jeunes Restaurateurs, a consortium of 350 chefs in Europe.

“Amongst them, they have 180 Michelin stars,” he said. “They are engaged in creating our menus.”

There are also a select number of JRE sailings, during which one of the chefs comes board for the duration of the itinerary and hosts tasting meus, wine pairings, and other similar culinary events.

Maloney also cited the line’s customer service as a highlight, telling TMR, “It’s the thing we get the highest marks for.”

Like expedition cruising, the destination comes first for Swan Hellenic and the shoreside experience is active.

“Our mission is to live the destination… We get our fingernails dirty,” he added more along the lines of traditional expedition lines which he preferred not to name.

Shore excursions include options like mountain climbing, sea kayaking, and hiking.

The biggest differentiator between Swan Hellenic and the other luxury expedition cruise lines is its unpretentiousness, Maloney emphasized.

“If you just come off of a hike and it’s time for dinner, you would feel perfectly comfortable at dinner, at this fine dining, dressed as you were on your hike.”

Demographics & psychographics
When asked who is the Swan Hellenic cruisers, Maloney was quick to distinguish between demographics and the psychographics.

“Our demographic is pretty much the same as I’ve seen at Tauck, at Trafalgar, at Scenic… It’s all the same, 55-plus, a hundred thousand-plus annual income, all that,” he said.

But it’s more the psychographic personified by the term, “70s is the new 50s,” that Maloney believes more accurately describes the Swan Hellenic guest.  

“People who are more interested in the destination and being actively engaged and immersed in the destination,” he explained. “It’s people who want to hike in Norway, who want to sea kayak amongst the whales…”

Trade centric
With Maloney leading the sales efforts for Swan Hellenic in North America, the cruise line is hyper focused on the North American trade.

“I am a huge fan of the trade,” he told TMR. “I have over 30 years of working with the trade… we are 100% trade centric.”

While Swan Hellenic does some consumer marketing, the intent is to drive customers to travel advisors.

“We’ve had a good reception. I stop short of saying bulletproof, but the product is really good and we’re getting repeat business and good word of mouth, particularly amongst the trade.”

Maloney leads a team of three sales reps, but intends to add more soon.

“Two years ago, a reservation would have been taken in the U.K. Now, we have a dedicated reservation staff in the U.S.”

However, because the product was developed before the infrastructure for the sales and marketing teams, there are some key trade pieces that are still missing. Pieces such as an agent portal or education program, for instance.

“I’m still developing some of our internal processes and policies,” Maloney said. “I intend to be the best partner they’ve got, but we’re still a startup in that respect.”

While an online agent portal isn’t in the works yet, Maloney told TMR he will be starting up a bi-monthly webinar series soon. The series will be a mix of trade-only and consumer-and-trade episodes, discussing the Swan Hellenic product and destinations.

As for commissions and payments, Maloney told TMR Swan Hellenic offers a “competitive commission structure” that is currently paid after the client travels.