Food & beverage
Salt of the earth W
hen Dirk Bocklage launched his vegan cruise company in 2014, it was still a niche lifestyle. Back then, he remembers his friends in Germany laughing at him when he brought vegetables, and only vegetables, along to a barbecue. Seven years later, veganism still hasn’t quite hit the mainstream, but Vegan Travel, which was initially cooked up over a few German lagers with a vegan restaurateur friend, has gone from strength to strength.
The first ever vegan river cruise set sail from Cologne, Germany, in 2014 and ended in Basel, Switzerland, with only Germans on board. By 2020, before the pandemic hit, Vegan Travel was operating three to five cruises every year with 60-70% of its passengers from abroad, hailing from the likes of the UK, America, Canada and Australia. The nuances of his clientele have also evolved. On Vegan Travel’s first cruise there were only
vegans on board, except for two or three meat- eaters who were travelling with their partners. Now at least one-third of the company’s customers are not fully vegan. One of its two ocean-going cruises – in Norway in 2017 – attracted 1,040 guests from around the world, many of whom were interested in finding out more about the health and environmental benefits of a vegan diet. Sandy Pukel, who founded vegan cruise company Holistic Holiday at Sea (HHAS) ten years before Vegan Travel’s first river cruise set sail, has seen similar growth. Alongside providing three vegan meals a day, HHAS focuses on educating guests about the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle through classes and lectures.
Its first cruise in 2004 had 400 guests; now that number is in the thousands and Pukel says the pandemic has made people even more open to HHAS’s message.
As environmental considerations and healthy lifestyles become higher priorities for cruise guests, more are either adopting a fully vegan lifestyle or incorporating more plant-based dishes into their diets. Elly Earls speaks to Anton Egger, consultant chef at Seabourn, Dirk Bocklage, managing director of Vegan Travel, and Sandy Pukel, president of Holistic Holiday at Sea about why cruise lines must cater to this growing trend and the onus it puts on culinary ingenuity.
World Cruise Industry Review /
www.worldcruiseindustryreview.com
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Nina Firsova/
Shutterstock.com com
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