2025 in Marine Travel

2025 has been a year of collaboration, achievement and change for ATPI Marine Travel. Together with clients and partners we’ve moved hundreds of thousands of seafarers around the world, tackled complex situations, and helped to advance conversations that matter in our industry.

Perhaps the defining moment for our company and customers was the completion of our acquisition by Direct Travel in September. This milestone marked the beginning of a new chapter for our business, creating one of the world’s leading travel management networks and bringing together shared values that ensure service excellence across the board. As part of Direct Travel, we now have even greater capability to support clients globally while staying true to the personal, responsive service our marine customers rely on.

The big conversations shaping crew change logistics

Crew welfare remained a central focus throughout the year with duty of care, mental health and inclusive travel planning in the spotlight. Person-centred travel arrangements play an essential role in looking after seafarers. Everything from their stress levels to their physical safety must be considered, so helping out with visas, organising fast track security or providing tracking services in unstable regions continues to be positive for both seafarers, and their employers.

Just as importantly, the environmental impact of crew change travel continued to gain traction as a topic of industry focus. While direct emissions from vessels still dominate much of the sustainability conversation, particularly in the wake of the IMO’s Net Zero Framework not being adopted in October, Scope 3 emissions from crew travel remain a significant and often overlooked part of shipping’s overall footprint. Our aim is to keep the industry well-informed, while also offering meaningful offsetting and compensation initiatives through ATPI Halo.

Artificial Intelligence in marine operations, including crew change travel also emerged as a hot topic in 2025. At Crew Connect Global in Manila, ATPI’s Eleftheria Letsiou joined a panel to discuss how AI is beginning to support areas like training, document handling, and predictive planning. While enthusiasm for AI is growing, the conversations acknowledged that meaningful progress depends not just on the technology itself, but on well-structured workflows and coordinated input across systems. These discussions are still exploratory, but they are helping to shape how the maritime industry thinks about integrating the power of AI into everyday business.

Out and about at industry events

Our team took part in key maritime events across the globe in 2025, not just to represent ATPI, but to listen, learn and contribute to conversations that help shape the future of shipping and crew change travel. We kicked off a busy events calendar at Seatrade Cruise Global in April, where our marine travel experts connected with cruise operators and logistics partners to discuss the complexities of global crew movement.

In June, the ATPI Nordics team was present at Nor-Shipping in Oslo where they presented new marine crew change logistics solutions and connected with partners and friends from the maritime industry.

In July, we had the pleasure of connecting with colleagues and industry professionals in Jakarta at INAMARINE 2025, where we focused on addressing day-to-day crew change travel challenges and exploring how solutions like ATPI CrewHub can support clients and seafarers to optimise crew changes.

September brought a packed schedule, beginning with the Cannes Yachting Festival, followed by our return to London International Shipping Week as the Official Travel Partner, where ATPI’s CCO Marine, Nikos Gazelidis addressed the opening ceremony at London Stock Exchange. This landmark event brought leaders from across the maritime world together, with discussions spanning crew wellbeing, environmental responsibility, global geopolitics and operational strategy. We were also present at the Monaco Yacht Show, continuing our dialogue with managers, skippers and crews, to ensure their specific needs are always met.

In October, Jochem Hemink and Gerrie Labuschagne represented ATPI at the Crew Success Summit in Florida.

In addition to the AI panel at Crew Connect Global in November, ATPI Marine Travel’s Head of Sales Jochem Hemink also joined our client Lori van Donge from Allseas on stage to spotlight how our close collaboration moves their people around the world in a safe, cost-effective and sustainable manner.

Building meaningful partnerships

Collaborating with respected organisations helps us bring more value to our clients and supports the broader maritime community. In 2025, we marked several important partnership milestones. On the commercial side, we started a partnership with Lounge Pass, to ensure we can continue to expand access to premium airport lounges for seafarers. Initiatives like this and offering fast track security if available, are meaningful ways to improve comfort and reduce stress on journeys.

Strengthening our ties within the maritime ecosystem, we joined the well established International Marine Purchasing Association (IMPA) earlier in the year, reinforcing our commitment to collaboration across the global supply chain and maritime procurement community. More recently, we became a member of InterManager, the international representation for ship and crew managers. Our association with this highly regarded organisation opens fresh opportunities for dialogue and cooperation around operational excellence, welfare and sustainability. It will also help to bring our perspective on crew travel to a wider forum of maritime professionals.

Looking ahead to 2026

The year ahead promises to be busy and exciting, filled with opportunities to deepen client partnerships and continue making the commute to work much easier for seafarers, wherever their vessels are. Crucially, being part of the Direct Travel family gives us even more strength and scale to deliver on the service and specialist solutions our marine customers expect and deserve.

To everyone who has been part of our journey this year, thank you. Here’s to a great 2026, full of progress and innovation, collaboration and shared success.