Who Is Akvile Marozaite?
Akvile Marozaite is a seasoned expedition cruise executive and the CEO and Co-Founder of Expedition Cruise Network, where she works at the intersection of travel trade, operators, and destinations to elevate how expedition cruising is understood and sold. With more than a decade of experience across expedition sales, operations, and business development, she is widely recognized for her ability to translate complex, unpredictable travel experiences into informed, responsible, and meaningful journeys. Grounded in a deep respect for nature, culture, and collaboration, Akvile is a leading voice shaping the future of expedition travel through education, partnership, and purpose-driven leadership.
For Akvile Marozaite, the defining moments of a career did not unfold in a boardroom. They unfolded at sea, far from predictable itineraries, surrounded by raw landscapes, wildlife, and cultures that demand attention rather than convenience. The first time she stepped aboard an expedition ship in the Russian Far East, the experience did more than introduce her to a new travel product. It fundamentally reframed how she understood the purpose of travel itself. What began as a professional chapter became a lifelong commitment to exploration with intention, and to helping others sell that experience with clarity, responsibility, and confidence.
Today, as CEO and Co-Founder of the Expedition Cruise Network (ECN), Marozaite operates at the crossroads of trade, operators, and destinations, shaping how the expedition cruise sector educates, collaborates, and evolves. Her work is rooted in a simple but demanding premise: the most powerful journeys are those that respect unpredictability while honoring people, place, and purpose.
A Global Perspective Shaped by Nature and Culture
Marozaite’s worldview was formed long before her professional immersion in expedition cruising. Raised in Lithuania, her early years were marked by deep engagement with nature, kayaking through interconnected lakes, foraging in forests, and spending long stretches immersed in rural life. That relationship with the natural world instilled an intuitive respect for landscapes as living systems rather than backdrops.
Moving to London in her twenties sharpened a contrasting awareness. Urban life, while rich in opportunity, often distances people from nature and from reflective space. Expedition travel, she later realized, offered a bridge between these worlds, combining access to remote environments with meaningful cultural exchange.
As she has reflected, “Expedition travel reconnects us with the natural world while giving us the time and space to reflect, both inwardly and outwardly, on what shapes us.”
Academically, Marozaite complemented this lived experience with a foundation in political science and a postgraduate diploma in intercultural communication from Birkbeck, University of London. Together, these disciplines sharpened her understanding of systems, governance, and human interaction, insights that would later prove invaluable in navigating a global, multi-stakeholder industry.
Learning the Industry from Every Angle
Marozaite’s ascent through the travel and cruise industry is notable not for linear progression, but for its breadth. Beginning her career in customer care, reservations, and operations, she gained firsthand exposure to the mechanics that underpin successful travel experiences. Her early onboard work with Silversea Cruises placed her directly within expedition environments, offering operational insight that few in sales or leadership roles ever experience.
Over more than a decade, she held positions spanning expedition consulting, sales management, business development, and special projects, eventually managing expedition operations and strategic initiatives. This cross-functional exposure became a defining asset. “Every experience counts,” she has said, noting that working across multiple sides of the industry allows leaders to anticipate challenges, ask better questions, and solve problems before they escalate.
Her leadership philosophy emerged from this lived understanding. Trust, she believes, is built through genuine comprehension of others’ realities. Business is not abstract, it is personal. When leaders have walked in multiple sets of shoes, they gain the humility and empathy required to align diverse interests toward shared outcomes.
This perspective laid the groundwork for what would become her most influential contribution to the sector.
Building a Network for an Industry That Needed One
The launch of Expedition Cruise Network marked a pivotal moment for the expedition cruise industry. As demand for expedition travel surged, so too did its complexity. Selling expedition cruising is fundamentally different from selling conventional travel; it requires advisors to speak in possibilities rather than promises, to understand evolving itineraries shaped by weather, wildlife, and regulation.
Marozaite identified a clear gap. Travel advisors needed deeper education, better access to operators, and a trusted community built exclusively around expedition cruising. ECN was designed to meet that need, offering events, a training academy, and a collaborative platform that draws on the expertise of its growing operator membership.
“To sell expedition cruising responsibly,” she explains, “advisors need to match the right client with the right operator and the right ship, for the right reasons.”
That depth of alignment protects not only the traveler experience, but also fragile destinations and local communities.
Under her leadership, ECN has become a unifying force, amplifying local voices, surfacing emerging talent, and fostering partnerships grounded in mutual respect rather than transactional goals. Her influence extends beyond the organization through industry speaking engagements, panel moderation, and thought leadership on expedition trends and trade relationships.
External recognition reflects this impact. One industry leader described her as “bringing together the expedition cruise industry behind our shared interests,” citing her strategic thinking, interpersonal strength, and ability to mobilize collaboration across a fragmented landscape.
Vision for the Future: Responsibility, Authenticity, and Leadership
As expedition cruising continues to evolve, Marozaite remains focused on its defining challenge: balancing growth with authenticity. She is encouraged by operators who prioritize local engagement, cultural integrity, and environmental stewardship, not as marketing narratives, but as intrinsic values.
She is equally clear-eyed about the work ahead. Sustainability in expedition cruising is complex, tied to global transport systems and fuel innovation. Yet the sector’s long-standing commitment to self-regulation, wildlife protection, and responsible access positions it ahead of many traditional travel segments.
For Marozaite, leadership in this space requires creativity as much as strategy. Curiosity fuels innovation; exposure fuels perspective. Above all, respect, for people, ecosystems, and experiences, must remain non-negotiable.
“When we are taken out of our normal environments and exposed to difference,” she reflects, “we often realize that far more unites us than separates us.” It is a belief that underpins her work and defines her vision for the industry’s future.
Editorial Note
Akvile Marozaite’s journey is a reminder that the most impactful leadership does not eliminate uncertainty, it learns how to navigate it with intention. By championing education, collaboration, and responsibility, she is helping an entire sector sell not certainty, but meaning. For leaders, advisors, and explorers alike, her story invites a broader question: how might we design growth that honors both ambition and accountability, and leaves the world richer than we found it?Selling the Unpredictable: How Akvile Marozaite Is Shaping the Future of Expedition Travel
