Poseidon Expeditions opens the season of cruises to the North Pole

The atomic icebreaker “50 years of Victory” will set sail on its first cruise of the 2012 season from Murmansk up to the North Pole today. All up, four cruises are planned over summer, all of which are completely sold out. This was reported to the press by the head partner of the Poseidon Expeditions company Nikolai Saveliov during a press conference at RIA “News” on Monday.

According to his words, the number of tourists that buy tickets for the cruise up to the North Pole has increased by 10 times over the past 20 years. If in the early 90’s there were around 60 – 70 people traveling on Russian icebreakers, mainly citizens from the U.S.A and Great Britain, now those figures are up to 530 passengers over 2011. What is more, many other countries have joined the ranks up with the English and the Americas, like residents from Austria, Holland, Germany and Japan, Brazil and Chile hopped on board a little after the Eastern European countries (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary), and starting from 2009 – Russians and the Chinese. Over the past 3 years the number of Chinese tourists on board the icebreaker has grown from 8 to 130. There has also been a significant increase in the number of Russian travellers. If in 2009 there were only 9, already in 2011 a total of 58 had visited the North Pole. Over the past 20 years, the nuclear icebreakers have carried around 6 thousand tourists there and back. The realisation of the cruise project cost the Poseidon Expeditions company half a million dollars.

It must be mentioned, that over the past years the cost of the cruise has also risen – in the early 90’s prices started out at $10 000. Today, the cheapest ticket on board will set you back no less than $22 000. “This price is directly related to the high production cost of the trip itself, and also the very brief season – 50 days. We can organize a maximum of 4 trips, but the entire company works year round to organize the cruise. In addition, there’s the high price of the vessel, helicopter use, organization of food supplies, special clothes – all of this doesn’t come cheap”, - Mr Saveliov points out. He also adds that the cruises could be cheaper, if there were more places available on board the icebreaker. But the amount of passengers can’t be any more than 128 people, and so the total cost divided by them turns out to be quite high.

Nikolai Saveliov reminded that cruises up to the North Pole on board Russian icebreakers had gone on sale straight after the collapse of the USSR, when freight transportation along the Northern way was reduced, and the icebreakers that were built to accompany the freight vessels ended up out of work. Over the past years the organizers have developed high service and staff standards.

Mustafa Kashka, the deputy director general FSUE Rosatomflot said that the icebreakers have been to the North Pole 88 times, and out of those 76 expeditions were Russian. Actually, in August 2012, will be the 35^th anniversary of the first trip to the North Pole by the icebreaker “Arctic” that has now been turned into a museum. According to Mr Kashka, icebreakers are employed to accompany vessels from October through to May, and in summer they aren’t in such demand, which allows some to be allocated for tourists, as well as additional resources for their maintenance. At the same time, Rosatomflot is not able to allocate more than one vessel from their fleet of 5 for the season – usually the cruises are carried out by “Yamal”, built in 1992, and “50 years of victory”, built in 2007. However, from the words of Mr Saveliov, if there were more trips carried out, Poseidon could sell even more cruises – up to 750 a year. According to a Rosatomflot representative, 2012 saw the start of construction on a new ice breaker, and in 2013, they plan to build another three.

The Head Deputy of Rostourisim, Georgyi Sarishvili points out that cruises up to the North Pole can and should become one of the leading brands of Russian tourism. The press secretary of the Russian Tour Industry Union finds that cruises to the North Pole – are a very unique product. “Many tour operators try to position one or another of their products as being exclusive. A cruise on an icebreaker – is the only real exclusive product in Russia, because it is offered only by Poseidon Expeditions. It is the only Russian company, which is a part of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO)”, - she underlines.

She also reminded that in contrast to the traditional cruises, expeditionary ones aren’t recreational, but educational. “On board the vessel there aren’t any shows or dances, all the time is taken up by lectures, presentations, stories about the North, sea birds, icebergs and ice. There is an amazing atmosphere that’s created by like-minded people - ones who’ve paid to acquire new knowledge and emotions. There is no dress code aboard the expeditionary ship, only sports clothes, and nobody cares how anyone is dressed. But the interaction and conversation is fantastic”, - tells Mrs Turin, who has been to the North Pole.

Nikolai Saveliov confirms that there are no age or health restrictions for the cruises. Passengers can vary from kids who are 6 years old, to grandpas under 90. It’s not an extreme voyage, you can compare the comfort level on the icebreaker with a four star hotel.

Tourists spend around 24 hours at the actual North Pole. They take photos, drink champagne, organize a “dance around the earth”, put up their national flags, some even celebrate their wedding there. For those who so desire, a swim in the ocean can be organised.

Answering questions for journalists regarding the safety of the cruise’s itinerary, the head of Poseidon Expeditions pointed out that they have developed special travel insurance for those on board wоrth 100 000 euro. In case of any problems, tourists can be delivered to shore by an assistant company and by the Norwegian Coast Guard. Aside from that, on board the vessel there is a hospital with doctors and all of the necessary equipment, including a surgery.

From the words of Mr Saveliov, it’s hard to sell expeditionary cruises through a tourism agency, because of the complexity of the product itself. Nevertheless, there are tour companies who have managed to do so quite successfully: “There is one small family owned company in Holland who fills up half of our steamers”. He adds that all of the cruises for 2012 are fully booked out, and now the company is selling cruises a year in advance.