Tuesday morning and afternoon, some 50 travel agents and other industry professionals gathered for a special presentation and luncheon held by Holland America Line. The day focused on HAL’s distant cruises and took place at the Hortus Botanicus botanical garden in Leiden. Two extensive presentations were given alternately by Pascal Driever (sales manager) and Christine van Leeuwen (business development manager), starting with the cruise line’s Alaska offering. HAL offers more than 300 destinations, but sees Alaska as one of its main products. Driever: ‘This season we have six ships in Alaska. We see a lot of families among customers and especially by Americans, it is really seen as a bucket list destination.’ The cruise line sails in Alaska from May to September and distinguishes itself with, among other things, exclusive access to deeper parts of Denali National Park and as the only shipping company that offers Denali in combination with Yukon (the Canadian part) during a longer land program. New cruising tool To make it easier for agents to book the various Alaska cruises and land programs, HAL is presenting its new Alaska Cruise Tour Finder, an online tool that allows different combinations to be made.
As a specialist in the area, passengers can count on special HAL compartments in the trains along the way and hotels that in most cases also belong to the shipping company. Underexposed One of the more exclusive voyages is the 28-day Arctic Circle Solstice, one of HAL’s longer and onward voyages (Fantastic Voyages). Accordingly, the second half of the presentation focused on the recently expanded far-flung travel offerings. Not without reason, according to Driever. ‘Recently, we have seen an increase in interest in long-distance and long-distance trips, including a strong demand for Japan. As far as we’re concerned, HAL’s offer in long-haul cruises is still a bit unexposed.’ Pole to pole New are the ‘legendary voyages’, launched this year. Voyages from 28 to 53 days to distant destinations, including ports “not offered by many cruise lines, Papua New Guinea, for example, or along the African east coast during our Grand Voyage. Vista Class ships in particular are used for the distant voyages, and smaller ships like the Koningsdam to the real corners of the world. The new voyage, departing in January of 2025, is the Pole to pole cruise, in which 68 ports will be visited with the Volendam for 133 days. Ancient times During the long-distance trips, the classic HAL cruise feeling from the time of yesteryear is used a little more, after customer research showed that the HAL passenger in particular appreciates this very much and would like it back. Driever: ‘In addition, as a destination specialist, we really bring the destinations we visit ‘on board’, with, for example, menus that balance with the local cuisine and many local speakers on board who can tell you more about the destination.’ Departure from the Netherlands After a ‘particularly good’ 2023 for the shipping company, bookings for (summer) 2024 are also going very well, Driever recently told TravMagazine. ‘Theyker our departures from the Netherlands were very popular this year, with high demand again for next year. In 2024, as many as 3 ships will depart from the Netherlands: the Rotterdam from Rotterdam, the Nieuw Statendam from Amsterdam and the Zuiderdam from IJmuiden. The offer is diverse, from 8-day fjord cruises to 15-day cruises to the North Cape, Iceland and the Scandinavian capitals.’ The day ended with lunch, followed by a tour of Hortus’ Japanese garden and tropical greenhouses, entirely in the faraway destinations theme. 
