Ambassador Cruise Line Appoints Paysafe as Payments Partner

 Ambassador Cruise Line, the new British cruise line which launched in May this year, has agreed a new partnership with Paysafe (NYSE: PSFE), a leading specialized payments platform. The agreement sees Paysafe provide Ambassador Cruise Line with a payment gateway and acquiring service in order to process payments for guests’ cruise purchases.

Ambassador Cruise Line is the first British cruise line to launch since 2010.  Ambassador will offer no-fly itineraries that are adult-focused and primarily aimed at the 50-plus market. Ambassador’s first ship, Ambience, is designed to carry up to 1,400  and her maiden season will run from April 2022 until May 2023 and include 33 sailings, visiting 88 ports across the Baltics, Greenland, Arctic, Iceland and beyond.

With extensive experience of travel industry payments, Paysafe has tailored its services for tour operators, airlines and cruise lines to support the sector as it recovers and returns to growth following the challenges it has faced since the beginning of the pandemic. This has enabled Paysafe to offer alternatives to the traditional cash security model and meet the specific payment acquiring needs of travel businesses, supporting them to increase liquidity and cashflow at a critical time for the industry.

Christian Verhounig, CEO at Ambassador Cruise Line, said: “We are hugely excited to launch the first British cruise line in over a decade. While we are offering a fresh and distinctive approach to cruise holidays, our ethos is to maintain the very high standards and values that our guests expect from an authentic cruise experience. Our premium-value offering starts with the booking experience. It is therefore important for us to partner with a payments provider with extensive travel sector knowledge and specially tailored services. We have found this with Paysafe.”

Paulette Rowe, CEO of Integrated & Ecommerce Solutions at Paysafe, added: “Many payments providers have been limited in terms of the support they are able to provide the travel industry since the pandemic set in due to the risk profiles it generates. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach so we have focused on finding innovative ways to meet the specific needs of travel businesses and provide a specialized acquiring service and payment gateway. Our aim is to give travel companies of all types flexibility, with better payment terms and no collateral or rolling reserves. This will help to future proof their business and regain consumers’ trust in travel by protecting their high-value purchases. Ambassador Cruise Line is at the very start of its own exciting voyage and we’re delighted to support the cruise line as its payments partner.”