Hurtigruten is buckling down on its Australian industry alliances in 2024, assembling some of the largest travel agency groups and partners in the country last week to outline its way forward after splitting the organisation in two recently.
Damian Perry, Managing Director of Hurtigruten APAC said Australia was a core market for the 130- year-old Norwegian organisation, with Antarctic sales from the region currently accounting for one-quarter of the brand’s bookings globally.
This year has been a great year for the brand regionally, with sales each month bettering the last.
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“The dividing of our brand is critical for our future,” Perry bluntly told the high-caliber audience at Hurtigruten’s Asia Pacific headquarters in Melbourne. Agencies represented at the event included Travel Associates, Phil Hoffmann Travel, Express Travel Group, Helloworld, Cruise About, APT, Imagine Holidays and more.
“There’s a lot of history and it’s not easy to always understand and not always easy to work with,” Perry admitted.
The division saw Hurtigruten Group split the Norwegian Coastal Passage and Hurtigruten Expeditions businesses into two individual units, respectively known as Hurtigruten (Norway) and HX. The objective of the division is to “fundamentally make it easier to work with, easier to understand for our travellers and easy to understand for the industry.”
Unlike other global markets, Hurtigruten’s Asia Pacific operation will continue to be overseen by one office.
With the division of the brands, Perry said he believes the number of travellers from APAC will grow further.
He said the operational side of Hurtigruten’s business and its NPS is in a good position, but added the brand has struggled to sell itself in-market for the last 10-20 years.
“We need your help with our brand this year and to really define how we sit in the market…how we differentiate from others,” Perry said.
“We need really strong partners. We can’t do this by just creating some new product.”
“We’re doubling down on our VIP partners and we’re doubling down on B2B. We are re-allocating money and resources and budget from our B2C into our position B2B partnerships”
Perry said HX and Hurtigruten Norway want to be the “very best partner” in the market.
“If someone comes to us and asks about wanting to double down on the Galapagos, we’re there for you,” Perry added.
“Everything we do either with Hurtigruten (Norway) or HX is underpinned by sustainability.”
Perry is optimistic for 2024, saying on paper it “looks damn good”.
Nature is a big focus for next year, with a key global university partnership to be revealed soon that will benefit guests. Perry told the travel retail leaders that partnership will “blow your mind”.
“Our focuses are nature, research and science, while community projects will be a major focus in Norway and around the world, including the Northwest Passage.”
“Our commitment for 2024 is to make it our very best year. After so much turmoil last few years.
“Things are going in the right direction but we want to do it together,” he said.
Joel Victoria, Director of Marketing – Asia Pacific for Hurtigruten unveiled the brand’s new sustainability-focused brochure strategy, which will see the business move away from bulky guidebooks in preference for the significantly more eco-friendly A4-sized fold-out leaflet.
An example previewed to event attendees in Melbourne was for HX’s Antarctica offering. That leaflet features a number of QR-codes that redirect to an e-brochure, along with information of each Hurtigruten Expedition ship and all the itineraries that it will operate to the White Continent. The flyer also provides a snapshot of HX’s sustainability initiatives and opens up to an A2-sized map of the destination, pinpointing locations of interest (such as penguin colonies, whales, seals, bird watching, etc) and where activities (including rafting, camping and snowshoeing) may take place.
HX will expand the leaflet range to cover the Galapagos Islands, Alaska, Iceland and more, plus Hurtigruten will look to co-brand the new brochure formats with partners.
Victoria said the leaflets will be used at tradeshows and will dramatically reduce the amount of waste.
“This format will see us reduce our brochure production by around 1 to 20. You can extrapolate the savings,” he said.
Further, Victoria pitched that “any crazy ideas for promotions” will be considered by local partners, with past “wacky” suggestions having been picked up globally by the company.
Amber Wilson, Sales Director – APAC for Hurtigruten said Hurtigruten wouldn’t be where it is today without the support of the trade.
“In the trade space our commitment is to you and working with you.”
That’s not limited to marketing, training or supporting events but “working with you, suggesting and driving ideas.”
“We’re open for anything to help you get your business to where you want it to grow to.”
“We are here to support you to make sure that it’s beneficial for you, to be the very best commercial partner that you have in this cruise space that we operate,” Wilson said.
Lead image: Brent Novak, Flight Centre; Amber Wilson, Hurtigruten; Darren Lloyd, Cruise About; Damian Perry, Hurtigruten; Joel Victoria, Hurtigruten and Ari Magoutis, Express Travel Group.
