Anthony Daniels, giving his first interview since taking up the role last year, also highlighted how "incredibly lucrative" expedition cruise bookings can be for agents and how the sector is currently attracting "a lot" of non-cruisers.
But Daniels noted how some agents are put off selling an expedition cruise over concerns owing to their lack of knowledge of the sector.
"I think expedition cruise conjures up a lot of different thoughts in people's minds," said Daniels, who is the UK and Ireland general manager at Ponant.
"There's an expectation from some agents that other agents know more than they do. There's such an opportunity for more agents to engage and really kind of actually grabbing the opportunity."
Daniels added: "The word of mouth from those guests who have tried an expedition cruise is one of the strongest levers that you're going to see in this industry. Expedition cruises blow passengers away. They come back having had this life-changing experience."
Daniels confirmed even "mid-range" bookings for cruises worth around £9,000 or £10,000 would generally secure agents between £1,500 and £2,000 in commission.
"Travel agents are going to have safari clients or touring clients," Daniels continued. "For agents, it's about giving customers the confidence to go and say 'have you considered expedition cruising or adventure cruising?'
"What's amazing is a lot of people that come into expedition cruise aren't always traditional cruisers. This is a programme that appeals to a wider sector that some of our trade partners are aware of."
Daniels outlined how ECN continues to aim to educate agents to help them convert guests and get them to try and expedition cruise.
Assessing the travel agent landscape and which agency sells lots of expedition cruises, Daniels said: "If you look at some of the really good performers among the ECN membership, they're not big agencies.
"They don't have hundreds of staff in their offices. There are some really good core agents that have got quality salespeople that just say 'right, we're going to make expedition our bag now. We're going to embrace it. Let's identify one or two destinations or one or two partners and just throw everything into that and really kind of create that as an opportunity'."
On the ongoing issue of discounting in the expedition cruise sector, Daniels stopped short of calling out individual operators, arguing that each brand had its own commercial strategy which would likely include occasionally cutting prices to drive bookings.
However, he said every cruise line has got "a responsibility" to protect its brand. "No one wants to be seen as a discount-heavy brand," he added. "We know it's part of our strategies as commercial operations for certain departures, certain sailings. The real demand and the real benefit is when you come to adding value.
"I think there are ways around it to incentivise the guest to travel but without trashing the products."
ECN is "very focused" on evolving its educational programme this year, according to Daniels, who confirmed that National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions will host an exclusive ECN ship visit near Edinburgh, including an overnight stay, expedition-style activities the day before and a hosted dinner ahead of boarding National Geographic Endurance.
Daniels added: "Beyond this, we are in active discussions with other ECN members and have also secured dedicated ECN allocations on selected fam trips taking place in 2026.
"These initiatives reflect our broader aim to create meaningful, immersive opportunities for the travel trade rather than one-off product showcases. There is much more to come."
