by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:30 PM ET, Fri June 30, 2023
Yet another cruise brand is calling it quits on the heels of the financially devastating global COVID-19 pandemic.
Vantage Deluxe World Travel, a Boston-based company, has filed for bankruptcy, The Points Guy reported. The filing came Thursday in lockstep with the company releasing all of its 70 shore-based employees and ceasing all sailings.
The company currently has just five employees, the bankruptcy filing stated.
The action was attributed to a “sharp drop in revenue after COVID-19,” according to The Points Guy.
Bankruptcy documents repealed that the company’s revenue declined from $132 million prior to the global pandemic to a little over $10 million as of 2020. Those figures represent a decline of more than 92 percent. And as revenues were rapidly decreasing, the company had to continue to pay its employee costs and all other operational expenses. The situation ultimately amounted in $29 million in losses just for 2020.
"While revenue rebounded somewhat in subsequent years, it remained well below ... pre-pandemic levels, resulting in continuing losses despite [our] attempts to down-size operations and reduce costs," the company said in the filing, according to The Points Guy.
Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, the travel industry came to a standstill. That included cruise lines halting all sailings for months. The fallout has been about one-dozen cruise brands, mostly smaller operations, going out of business.
Some of the other brands that threw in the towel in recent years include Crystal Cruises (and its Asia-based sister brands, Dream Cruises and Star Cruises), Venus Cruises, Jalesh Cruises, Birka Cruises, Blount Small Ship Adventures, and Cruise & Maritime Voyages. In addition, Pullmantur Cruises shuttered amid the pandemic and in 2021 Sail Windjammer ended operations.
Vantage is seeking permission via its bankruptcy filing, to sell most of its assets to Heritage Expeditions and Nordic Hamburg for $1 million.
Cruise lines haven't the only ones to file bankruptcy in recent years amid pandemic-related pressures. Mexican airline Aeromar also folded earlier this year citing similar financial challenges.
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