Swan Hellenic

Swan Hellenic is a British cruise line specialising in expedition tours of historical or cultural interest aimed at the upper end of the cruise market. Swan Hellenic was first established as Swan's Tours in the 1950s as a tour operator carrying guests to historic sites, providing enrichment throughout their trips. In 1983, Swan Hellenic was acquired by P&O and became a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc in 2003, but it ended operations in 2007 after Carnival discontinued the brand. Shortly after, All Leisure Holidays Group purchased and revived Swan Hellenic, but ended its operations in 2017. G Adventures acquired the brand later that year and planned to revive it for a second time in 2018, but sold the brand to a private group in 2020, which plans to resume Swan Hellenic's operations with its first-ever new-build ship in 2021.

History

1950s–1983: Swan's Tours

In the 1950s, a British travel agent called Swan's Tours, operated by a father and son (W.F. Swan and R.K. Swan), was asked to organise a tour for visitors interested in the antiquities of Greece. Archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler served as a guest lecturer on the tours. The tours developed into a full programme of cruises, a concept known as "cultural cruising," in which well known academics, writers and clergymen were regularly featured as guest lecturers, both onboard ships and on site. Swan's Tours prided itself on never repeating an itinerary and focused its business on touring classical sites in the Aegean sea, around the coasts and islands of modern Greece and Turkey. It also visited classical and other ancient sites in north Africa (including Egypt) and the eastern Mediterranean. In contrast to most commercial cruises offered at the time, in which the onboard entertainment was as important as the destinations visited, Swan's itineraries included almost-daily port calls for visits to historic sites, placing a high emphasis on the destination-oriented nature of its business. The operation was characterised by an English ethos of high culture, although it had an international following.

1983–2007: As subsidiaries of P&O and Carnival

In 1983, P&O acquired Swan Hellenic from the Swan family. In 2003, it became a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc after Carnival merged with P&O Princess Cruises. Under Carnival, the characteristically small 300-passenger ship ''Minerva'' was replaced in 2003 by the 600-passenger ''Minerva II''. This led to criticism that the intimacy of the original cruise concept had been compromised.

On 7 April 2007, Carnival officially ceased Swan Hellenic's operations, and transferred ''Minerva II'' to the Princess Cruises fleet with the new name of ''Royal Princess''. Swan Hellenic's demise was also compounded when Martin Randall Travel launched a series of cruises to fill the niche Swan Hellenic had left.

2007–2017: First revival

On 15 March 2007, following news of Carnival folding the Swan Hellenic brand, Lord Sterling, the former chairman of P&O, announced that he was buying the Swan Hellenic brand and intended to relaunch the cruise line as soon as a suitable vessel could be located.The Cruise Ship Report, 15 March 2007 ''Swan Hellenic, Despite Losing Its Only Cruise Ship, Gets New Life'' Retrieved fro
''The Cruise Ship Report''
on 18 March 2007 All Leisure Holidays Group (ALG) subsequently acquired Swan Hellenic, joining it with sister brand Voyages of Discovery. The revived brand intended to begin operations with ''Minerva'' in May 2008, but the maiden voyage was later postponed after the ship's generators incurred problems. For her inaugural season, ''Minerva'' was scheduled to sail itineraries to the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Mediterranean.

In January 2008, Swan Hellenic announced it would begin operating river cruises in 2009, offering itineraries sailing on the Danube from Vienna and on the Rhône from Lyon. The cruises were operated in partnership with A'Rosa Cruises, and were offered with packages that included land excursions and gratuity charges.

On 4 January 2017, it was reported that ALG had gone into administration, leaving 400 passengers abroad. The Civil Aviation Authority was instructed to repatriate them and future bookings for 13,000 others had been cancelled with pending refunds. The news came one day after the company announced it was cancelling its first itineraries of 2017, seen as a precursor to the ending of operations after profits had declined in recent years. That month, Grant Thornton's Eddie Williams, administrator to ALG, told BBC
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