Tuesday 20 January 2015

Ponant Takes Over Travel Dynamics

#expeditioncruising

Last December, Ponant announced that it had acquired several key assets of Travel Dynamics International of New York, which has provided educational programs on small cruise ships since it was founded in 1972 by brothers George and Vasos Papagapitos from Rhodes, who specialised in finding group travel for university alumni associations from such illustrious institutions as Stanford and Yale Universities.

The 1998-built 90-berth Le Levant
The entire Travel Dynamics team in New York has since been invited to join Ponant Cultural Cruises and Expeditions, which will be based in New York. The new Ponant New York office will handle all Ponant bookings originating from the North American market.

Ponant already has existing partnerships in the US with Abercrombie & Kent, Tauck Tours and Gohagan & Company of Chicago. Since last autumn it has also operated the 114-berth Corinthian for Grand Circle of Boston and the company has also been active in promoting cruises on the small ships of Variety Cruises in Greece.

The company first did business with Ponant when it chartered the 1998-built 90-berth Le Levant for cruises in the Great Lakes.

Travel Dynamics’ first ship, the 130-berth Illiria
Travel Dynamics’ first ship was the 130-berth Illiria, which they operated to Antarctica and in the Canada/New England trade as well as in Europe in the early 1980s. A model of the Illiria is still on display in Travel Dynamics’ headquarters in Manhattan.

by Kevin Griffin - The Cruise Examiner

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