Catching Up with Atlas Ocean Voyages: Brand Ethos, What’s New, & More

When James Rodriguez joined Atlas Ocean Voyages as president and CEO in August of 2022, the start-up cruise line was struggling to find an identity. Introduced as a luxury expedition yacht-style cruise company, travel advisors didn’t know what to make of the line, which reflected in occupancy numbers close to single digits.

It was a cruise line in crisis. Only a month prior, the owners of the company axed the entire executive team, most of whom had been with Atlas since its inception in 2019.

It was up to Rodriguez to right the ship. With close to two decades of experience at Oceania Cruises under his belt, Rodriguez knew where to start – with travel advisors. Hired just in time to attend Virtuoso’s Travel Week on behalf of Atlas, Rodriguez talked with dozens of advisors to find out what they knew – or didn’t know – about Atlas.

“It was a good opportunity for me to go on a listening tour,” Rodriguez told Travel Market Report.

He quickly realized that while advisors had heard of Atlas, they didn’t quite understand its overall offering or its value proposition.

“Very quickly, by the end of August, we had revised our brand positioning, our go-to market strategy, and the brand ethos, who we are and what we’re going to be about,” he said. “Those are the three things that our travel advisors really wanted to know about us so they can properly sell the product.”

To start, Rodriguez launched the line’s evergreen second guest sails free promotion – just in time for the launch of Atlas’ second yacht. It was more successful than he ever could have envisioned.

“Very quickly” Rodriguez was getting phone calls from advisors he knew that wanted to book Atlas but had been on hold for two hours because, all of a sudden, everyone was calling to book.

“I was taking Excel bookings on a spreadsheet from travel advisors so that they wouldn’t have to sit on the phone so long,” he said. “We didn’t have the infrastructure because we didn’t anticipate the immediate uptake.”

When all was said and done, the last Antarctica season ended at 89% sold. 

The success of the promotion allowed Atlas to raise pricing, and prompted Atlas’ parent company to take delivery of a third ship – World Voyager – a year earlier than scheduled.

Differentiating Atlas with Epicurean expeditions
Atlas differentiates itself in the Polar regions by its onboard laid-back luxury, but demand is high enough in these regions that filling capacity is not a massive challenge. It’s outside of the Polar region that finding a way to differentiate Atlas from the rest of the competition has been one of Rodriguez’s main focal points.

Like all expedition ships, when it’s not the Antarctic or Arctic sailing season, the ships have to go where other cruise ships already have an established presence.

“How can we take that [expedition experience] and bottle it up and take it into the Med, because there’s so much competition there and so many products there,” Rodriguez said. “How do you really differentiate yourself from your competitors there?”

To compete, Rodriguez created a new style of expedition cruising that Atlas calls epicurean expedition that sails in “areas of the world that are traditionally experienced through your taste buds.”

“People love to talk about the pastas or the paellas or the Greek food or the wines of a region,” he said, explaining how Atlas is taking the same expedition mindset it offers in the Poles and executing it in the Mediterranean.

“We take our Polar expedition team off and put on an Epicurean team,” he said.

That team consists of a guest chef, gastronomic experts, wine vintners, and others that can “bring those areas of the world to life” through food and drink.

According to Rodriguez, the concept, which debuted last year, has resonated with guests and travel advisors.

“Our travel partners have so many products out there to talk about. We really wanted to give them something tangible to talk to potential guests about the Atlas product.”

He added that Atlas’ expedition programming also is “more active than passive.”

Cultural expeditions
So far, Rodriguez seems pleased with Atlas’ Polar and Epicurean expeditions, but it’s not enough.

“We really wanted to come up with a third expedition type, which is the cultural expedition,” he told TMR.

As he explained it, all of Atlas’ voyages already have that cultural expedition aspect to them, but in non-Polar regions where there’s not much of an epicurean experience to be had, he plans to beef up the cultural expedition elements.

“It’s based on those elements of history, architecture, culture, arts, the performing arts, those types of things,” he said.

The Atlas guest
TMR asked Rodriguez, who is the Atlas Ocean Voyages guest?

In many ways, the Atlas guest is your typical expedition guest. Curious about the world, eager to invest in experiences and not things, and looking to actively immerse themselves in a destination.

“In the post-pandemic world, people are really doubling down on investing in active experiences,” he said.

In the Polar regions, the Atlas guest skews younger (between 45 and 55), is more active (they’re often combining an Antarctica cruise with trekking in Patagonia), and many have never been on a cruise before.

“They may have been reluctant because of preconceived ideas of what a cruise is all about,” he explained.

He added, that many of these passengers, particularly at the younger end of the spectrum, do a hybrid work/vacation, which was the impetus for rolling out Starlink high-speed Wi-Fi onboard the yachts.

The Mediterranean, he said, skews somewhat older – about 55-plus.

Rodriguez recommends that travel advisors look to their river cruise clients when seeking out the right guest for an Atlas Mediterranean cruise.

“They’re used to the smaller ship experience. They’re used to these intimate port visits along the rivers, going to places that are not crowded with lots of cruise ships… of having a more authentic experience in these destinations… this is the perfect segue for them.”

Investing in the trade
More than 90% of all of Atlas’ bookings come through travel advisors and the cruise line is working hard to make the process easier.

Right now, all bookings must be done over the phone but starting in Q1 of 2024, advisors will be able to book Atlas through their preferred GDS.

Additionally, Atlas is launching a new website in February, which will have an online booking component for advisors.

What’s new for Atlas
With the addition of a third ship in Antarctica, Atlas has expanded its itinerary options, specifically with the addition of fly/cruise itineraries. Choices are either flying one-way, then sailing back or flying both ways.

Next year, Atlas will expand the fly/cruise offerings, as well as add a longer overall itinerary to include South Georgia, the South Orkney Islands, and the Falklands.

In the Arctic, during the summer months, Atlas will be sailing two of its yachts this year. (The third ship will be in the Mediterranean.) For cruises that start in Longyearbyen, Atlas includes charter air from Oslo to make it easier for guests. In 2024, Atlas will be adding two Greenland voyages, one with charter air from Oslo and one with charter air from New York’s JFK airport.

“We’re doing it as a test to see what the uptake is for that type of offering,” Jason O’Keefe, director of corporate communications & development told TMR. “We recognize that to fly all the way east to Norway to turn around and return back west, we’re trying to be logical with this.”

If the test is successful, Atlas will update its 2025 program to include two more of this itinerary.

Looking further into the future, Atlas is looking to expand its itinerary offerings to places like East Africa, the South Pacific, and Australia and the Kimberley.