Quark Expeditions (Quark) was set up in 1991 and has single-mindedly focused on being a polar specialist ever since. When Sam Seward was asked to join as president in 2025 after running adventure travel businesses for Travelopia, the decision was an easy one. He had travelled with Quark on Ultramarine in Svalbard with his mother in 2023 and was already hooked. Moving to Toronto, Canada, with his young family to join Quark was a no-brainer.
With the expedition sector expanding, Seward sees new opportunities for Quark. “Telling our story of being polar only and being really invested in the quality of our expedition team, which we believe is the best in the world, is critical for brand differentiation purposes,” he says.
Ensuring all the passengers get off the ship into the environment together at every opportunity is also a must. “We’re focused on that and on maintaining a 1:6 staff-to-guest ratio, so we can offer whole-ship activities,” says Seward. “You don’t want to be stood on the balcony watching someone having an amazing interaction with a pod of humpbacks from the side of a Zodiac; you want to be there with them.”
The onboard team are vital to delivering these experiences. Quark is unique in the industry in having an academy in Ushuaia, Argentina, where it trains its team to ensure they have all the skills and experience they need, while also driving employee motivation and retention.
Quark is already enjoying repeat bookings of upward of 20 per cent and Seward predicts this number may increase. “It is a macro trend that the luxury segment continues to grow but we are finding more guests are transitioning to expedition cruise because they are seeking the depth and breadth we offer.”
In this respect, Quark takes its responsibilities of “operating in some incredibly sensitive areas – the last true wildernesses on the planet” very seriously. “We are committed to partnering with industry bodies such as the International Association Antarctica Tour Operators and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators,” says Seward.
“We want to be in the room where we are agreeing and tabling guidelines, restrictions, no-go and low-speed areas, landing site constraints, enhancing rules around protecting biosecurity measures and so on. These are all good things for the environment but also a challenge we have to accommodate.”
Like all of Quark Expeditions’ ice-strengthened ships, Ultramarine is designed to operate safely in polar environments, while offering guests a luxury onboard experience (Photo: Michelle Sole)
One of the company’s ambitions is “to try and develop standards into the industry around responsible procurement and to try to maximise the economic benefit for the destination community”, says Seward. Community is one pillar of Quark’s two-strand sustainability agenda – the other is conservation – and it engages with locals in places like Nunavut, Canada, and Greenland, where it is trying to enhance tourism infrastructure for the benefit of the community.
Seward cites an example of taking stakeholders from Nunavut aboard Ultramarine “to help them understand what the guest experience is like, what we are interested in doing and why we are coming to these communities”. Likewise the company has been seeking out and partnering with Greenland businesses, for example it has introduced a mountain biking programme in partnership with a local business, which will involve developing mountain biking trails. This will enable local tourism stakeholders and wider communities to benefit, even though Quark ships only call a few times in a season.
“Maximising the commercial opportunity for the destination, community and the entrepreneurs should be a win-win-win, situation,” explains Seward. “The guests feel more welcome, the destination infrastructure is enhanced, and there is a more genuine cultural exchange.”
When it comes to conservation, Quark’s focus is twofold. In its journey to net zero, it sees renewing the fleet as the most effective way of managing the inevitable emissions that come with operating ships. “We only have a small fleet and small vessels [Ultramarine, Ocean Explorer, World Explorer (retiring) and World Voyager],” says Seward. “However, through a renewal process and a huge amount of capital investment, we have reduced the average age of our fleet from 37 years to five since 2019. That has reduced the emissions at a guest level by a bit more than one-third.”
And Quark isn’t stopping there; it is exploring a fourth Antarctic vessel to come on stream in 2029-2030. “This would allow us to meet demand,” says Seward. “We have very high occupancy levels this year. It will probably be our best year on record in terms of booking levels. We want to bring a fourth ship on line which caters for the evolving demands of the industry. That might be a smaller vessel more suited to the fly-cruise programme, or a ship offering more of a science programme. We are working through different options.
“We are also looking carefully at what this next round of investment will mean for the Antarctic fleet. I’m hoping what we will see is older tonnage being retired and moved out of the regions, rather than being repurposed by new entrants as it’s not good for the industry’s overall emissions profile.”
Quark Expeditions aims to maximise opportunities for guests to get up close to whales and other wildlife (Photo: Quark/Gajan Balan)
Quark is talking to two shipbuilders about new concept vessels and two others that have developed ships like those Quark is using, such as Ocean Explorer with its X-bow. However, it is too early to disclose names.
Conservation also comes in the form of investing in scientific research. This is either through the guest auction programme onboard, which directed $350,000 to charities, such as Penguin Watch and the High Arctic Gull Research Group, in 2025. Or through Quark donating $700,000 in berths since 2024 to help researchers reach, for example, remote penguin rookeries and nurseries for data collection.
A straw poll of guests conducted in January 2026 revealed they are drawn to Quark because of its polar specialism and the promise of maximising time off the vessel. Although the research side is not a direct pull, Seward believes it is one of the aspects driving guests to return. “They find it very interesting and motivating. For instance understanding the relationship between krill fishing and whale and penguin activity is a ‘scales off the eyes moment’ for a lot of people.”
Looking ahead, Seward is keen to continue maximising the guest experience whilst investing in technology to create a lower friction rate. Whilst acknowledging that the use of artificial intelligence will inevitably play a part in improving both onboard and pre/post-trip experiences, he says: “My sense is that, with increasing automation, guests are going to place increasing emphasis on the quality of human interaction and experiences. The more time you spend talking to a chatbot to pay the gas bill, the more time you are yearning to be around like-minded people. That trend will keep amplifying.”
With his 25-year background in adventure, small group touring and active holidays, Seward is working on building “a set of really brilliant pre- and post-cruise experiences to give guests the Quark experience for a longer period, not just on the voyage”. He views this as a priority because they have not been offered by Quark before and they provide a chance to break up the journey. “One of the opportunities we have with international travel is to reduce the number of long-haul flights we take, so if people are willing to stretch their itineraries and add on experiences before and after voyages, that will benefit emissions as well.”
It is clear that Quark’s president is fully onboard with the company’s ethos of not only exploring the polar regions, but protecting them too.
Discover more insights like this in the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of Cruise & Ferry Review. Don’t miss out - subscribe for FREE and get the next issue delivered straight to your inbox.