Cruise Traveller’s Craig Bowen Talks Small Ships

From the Desk of QuirkyCruise.com

QuirkyCruise’s Heidi Sarna had an e-chat with Craig Bowen, managing director of Cruise Traveller, an Australia-based travel agency specializing exclusively in the small-ship niche. Craig shares why he’s so passionate about the boutique cruise world.

This article was first published in March 2018, and most recently updated in January 2021.

QC: The COVID pandemic has drastically curtailed travel; how do you see the travelling public as well as travel companies like yours moving forward?

Craig Bowen: Whilst there is no question that demand for long haul travel out of Australia has been understandably impacted, there is clearly pent-up demand for when cruising gets going again. We made the decision very early to do everything possible to be there on the other side to ensure that the 20 years of small ship expertise is not wasted — and we are on track for this.

Obviously the success of vaccines, stringent pre boarding and on board COVID-19 protocols, and deposit and payment flexibility are all very important — but I am confident that when the world starts settling down that there is going to be a strong demand for small-ship cruising again and we intend to be here to help.