Once viewed by wealthier vacationers as mass market, déclassé venues for watery cocktails, garish waterslides, buffet stampedes and Norovirus outbreaks, cruises are now chic.
Everyone from Martha Stewart and Tom Brady to Kendall Jenner and Dakota Johnson was onboard the Ritz’s recent launch of Luminara, the hotel brand’s new ship, which has been floating around the Mediterranean.
Savvy investors and luxury brands are recognizing cruises as the next frontier for high-end travel.
“There is an arms race between high-end hotels to get into the luxury cruise space,” Jim Murren, CEO of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection told me. The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection/INSTARimages
The billionaire Francois Pinault, whose family has owned French cruise line Ponant for a decade, bought a majority stake in the luxe cruise line Aqua Expeditions earlier this year.
Bernard Arnault and LVMH have invested in an Orient Express ship that is currently under construction and set to be delivered next year.
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