{"id":12602,"date":"2013-06-26T23:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T23:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/false-pricing-in-expedition-cruising\/"},"modified":"2013-06-26T23:41:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T23:41:00","slug":"false-pricing-in-expedition-cruising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2013\/06\/false-pricing-in-expedition-cruising\/","title":{"rendered":"False pricing in expedition cruising"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nas reported in<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n

by Louise Goldsbury, editor<\/p>\n

Briggs seeks end to false pricing <\/b><\/p>\n

Coral Princess CEO Tony Briggs is hopeful of more credible pricing for expedition cruising in Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Briggs seeks end to false pricing <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The change of ownership of Orion Expedition Cruises has been welcomed by rival operator Coral Princess Cruises<\/a> as an opportunity to be rid of \u201cfalse prices\u201d for products such as expedition cruises in the Kimberley region. <\/p>\n

As head of the Australian company, Tony Briggs told CW that local ship owners had struggled to compete against international vessels offering large discounts to consumers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe pioneered the concept of expedition cruising in the Kimberley in 1995 and we never discounted \u2013 only for past guests, groups and charters,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201c The biggest change in the past six or seven years has been the level of discounting occurring in the market by foreign-owned, foreign-flagged, foreign-crewed ships with a much lower cost base, who don\u2019t employ Australian workers or pay Australian taxes, so it was a challenge for all of us to compete.\u201d <\/p>\n

Coral Princess, North Star Cruises, Kimberley Quest and The Great Escape were forced to match the lower fares, Briggs said, which had a dramatic effect on business. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t grow to our full potential, and there was no chance for new local operators to enter the market,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019re coming out of that now \u2013 we just want a level playing field.\u201d <\/p>\n

Briggs said he was \u201cheartened\u201d by recent comments earlier this month by Orion\u2019s new owner Sven Lindblad that he would \u201crestore credibility in pricing\u201d for expeditions in the
region (CW 04 Jun). <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s a false price being set to allow for discounting, it creates a lot of confusion in the market, which is not good for operators or consumers,\u201d Briggs said. <\/p>\n

He urged agents to keep in mind the differences between the experiences on itineraries offered by local ships compared to ships owned by foreign companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oceanic Discoverer in PNG. Coral Princess pioneered the return to cruising in PNG in 2006.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWhen they put clients on an Australian coastal cruise on an international ship, it\u2019s not an Australian cruise \u2013 they have to go to an international port, such as Timor. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud to have Australian-flagged and Australian-crewed ships in the Kimberley for six months of the year offering more departures than any other operator,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Coral Princess, Coral Princess II and Oceanic Discoverer also sail in the Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand, New Guinea, Melanesia, Cape York and Arnhem Land. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

as reported in by Louise Goldsbury, editor Briggs seeks end to false pricing Coral Princess CEO Tony Briggs is hopeful of more credible pricing for expedition cruising in Australia. Briggs seeks end to false pricing The change of ownership of Orion Expedition Cruises has been welcomed by rival operator Coral Princess Cruises as an opportunity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[330,324],"class_list":["post-12602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coral-princess-cruises","tag-cruise-weekly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}