Tennile Hunt

What brings Quarks Expeditions to India?

I am here on a road show with our representation firm Heaven’s Portfolio to promote Quark Expeditions. We have been mounting expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic for 35 years. We have got three ships, soon to be four ships. We will soon launch a fourth ship and we have got a variety of itineraries to Antarctica and the Arctic.

India is a very emerging destination for us. We are seeing a boom in enquiries, more in the last three to six months.

Indians are quite mature travellers, they are starting to want to do a bit more soft adventure and looking for something different. We have seen a real uptake in enquiries for expeditions and so I wanted to come over here and get my brand out there a little bit more, meet with agents, meet with partners like yourself.

How important is India as a market for you?

It is an emerging market. In the last three to six months, the intake of enquiries and the interest in expeditions is huge. We see a really big opportunity over here. I think the Indians that do travel outbound, they are looking for something a little bit different.

We have started to see a lot of kind of multi-generational family travel with Indians, we are seeing groups, we have even had some really large group enquiries but it is definitely a real growing segment for us.

What kind of response did you get from India?

I was really surprised how many agents knew about Antarctica and probably out of the 30 I spoke to, there was probably four or five that had been to Antarctica. I was really surprised how educated the market was. It is quite mature here with Antarctica.

For the Arctic, not so much. There was not as much knowledge with the Arctic but in the same sentence, there is a lot of interest with the Arctic because here in India, you are halfway there. You are just one flight to Helsinki and that is where we enter. That is our access point for Arctic expeditions.

Which cities in India are you getting the most enquiries from?

Delhi and Bombay mostly, because they are the metropolitan cities. Also, from Pune. We have had a few from Pune. That is pretty much majority of our clients.

What kind of itinerary would you suggest for an Indian traveller?

For an Indian traveller, 95 pc of them are doing an eight-day itinerary, which is called the fly-cruise. For Antarctica, when you travel to the South American peninsula, which is where we travel to, there are two access points, one in Argentina and other in Chile.

In Argentina, you actually get on the ship and you need to sail across the Drake Passage. It takes two days each direction to sail. The Indian market does not want to do this.

They want to fly across. So instead, they start from Chile and they fly for two and a half hours and land on King George Island, do the expedition and fly back. And they do that in eight days. And that is what is really, really booming for the Indian market.

How many Indian clients did you have last year?

In the last 12 months about 80 passengers have booked from India.

How big are your ships?

We have three ships. Yeah. They are all under 200 passengers. In Antarctica, there is a rule that you can only have 100 people on the ice at any one time and for that reason, the capacity of all our ships is under 200. So, we have 100 on the ice, 100 in the zodiacs, large, heavy-duty inflatable vessels are extremely safe and were specially designed for expedition work, and then you swap them.

Do you expect a good response from this roadshow?

Absolutely, I do, because the interest has been great. I have had so many questions. I have even had a new group enquiry today come through.

I think it is just a question of building awareness. There are some other brands that are quite prominent in India that do expedition travel, but more focused on the whole world rather than just Antarctica. Getting our brand out there, it is just creating that awareness and having that brand presence. So that when the Indian agents get the enquiry from their clients, they will think of Quark Expeditions.

Antarctica21 is a key player in the Indian market now. How do you see that competition?

Yeah, other brands have done an absolutely fantastic job. I must absolutely credit them because all the agents that knew about Antarctica yesterday, a lot of that knowledge was from Antarctica 21.

And they run a great programme. They do the fly-cruise programme. But we offer that too.

We have got two great ships that do that. And we do fly one way, we cruise the other. And truth be told, there is enough business for everyone.

It is about matching the right client on the right ship. We have got three, soon to be four beautiful ships, modern ships, the oldest one was built in 2020.

India is a really last-minute market. It is very different to Australia where I am from, where we book Antarctica 12 to 18 months in advance. But in India, they book three to six months in advance, and the fly-cruise programme does book out. So there is certainly enough market share for both Antarctica 21 and for Quark Expeditions.

Do you also get through the Drake Passage?

We do the Drake Passage. It is quite adventurous. We call it the Drake Lake or the Drake Shake. The Drake Shake is when it can be rough and people feel a bit seasick. We have two doctors on board every ship, but a lot of the Indian customers are worried about seasickness and hence they prefer to do the fly-cruise.

Which are your top markets right now?

Definitely North America is our biggest market. Our second source market is the United Kingdom and the third would be Asia Pacific. Generally, about 25-30 pc of Quark Expeditions’ business comes from APAC. When I say APAC, that includes Australia and New Zealand as well and Asia and India as I said is really emerging for us. And it is just about getting our brand out there a bit more.

What is the best season to go for this kind of an expedition?

For Antarctica, the season is November to March. There is no bad time between November to March. But if your clients want to see something specific, that might determine when they go. Which is why, we want to speak to agents to help them educate them and identify the right trip for their client. November is the beginning of the season, it is like really pristine snow-capped mountains. Winter has just finished, thick snow, the wildlife is arriving. It is great for photography.

You have got all the baby elephant seals, which are not so baby, they are huge. In December and January, you have got more sunlight and you have got the baby chicks.

Then February is whale season, you get a plethora of whales. March is the end of the season. So that is November to March for Antarctica.

Whereas for the Arctic, the best time to visit is May to September. July is when we visit Svalbard, where there are over 3,000 polar bears. In July and August, we visit Greenland and during August and September, we visit the Canadian Arctic.

Indians are quite particular about their food. So what kind of facilities do you offer?

I get this question often and it was good just to understand because we have so much vegetarian food on board. Half of our expedition team is vegetarian but I know that a lot of Indians want Indian vegetarian.

So there are different ways that we can get around that. There is always the possibility of trying to get an Indian-centric voyage as well. However, there is plenty of vegetarian food.

What is your plan for this year?

Well, we kind of work on launch seasons as well, because next week we actually launch Antarctica 2026-2027. So the strategy will be focussed on really getting that out to all of our partners. Then in the same breath, the strategy for India is a little bit different because it is a last-minute market. Here, I am pushing Arctic 2025 and Antarctica 2026-27. I am meeting so many people over the next few days.

My job after that will be to connect with them all and follow up and identify who really has the right demographic to sell polar travel, who wants to work with you more, who wants training and then go from there.