National Geographic Store Expands to Sea

The newest addition to the Disney Cruise Line fleet is based out of Singapore. The massive ship includes endless restaurants and retail, including The National Geographic Store.

From on-board video, it seems that the products are better than what’s in the above artist concept graphic, and indeed very similar to what’s available at the Asian chain National Geographic Apparel. It’s unclear whether the store is run by the same company, The Nature Holdings.

 

 

Worldwide Retail Store ownership

National Geographic opened its a store on Regent Street in London, England in November 2008. Both it and Singapore’s location, opened in 2009 at VivoCity, took a rather different approach, with things like museum display cases of artifacts and sculptures for sale. London’s location even promoted exhibitions with start and end dates. Both seem to be relatively short-lived.

The company owning the London store, Worldwide Retail Store, also opened locations in Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, Panama (Tocumén International Airport), Andorra, and Sydney Airport. In their home country of Spain, the company ran locations in Málaga Airport, Madrid and Palma de Mallorca.

Current chain, The Nature Holdings

In 2016, Korean company The Nature Holdings purchased a license to operate stores under the National Geographic Apparel brand. (Oddly, the company markets the products online-only in South Korea.)

Malaysia has two locations, thirteen in Taiwan, Hong Kong eleven shops, at least five in Philippines, four in Thailand, while Indonesia and Macau have one each.

The chain had expanded into China in September 2023, with plans to expand to six locations by the end of the year, in upscale shopping malls.

The vibe of this era is much more modern and, dare I say it, generic. No doubt it’s fashionable, but it easily could exist under another name.

Museum store?

Both licenses were issued before Disney finalized their purchase of National Geographic Partners in 2019. The National Geographic Society itself still owns 27% of the brand.

NGS itself is opening National Geographic Museum of Exploration this summer in Washington, D.C. Undoubtedly it will have a gift shop.

But for years prior, National Geographic Society’s Explorers Hall offered its own selection of exhibitions, and a museum store, renovated in 2022.