For a company that shies away from the traditional concept of “cruise”, Hurtigruten has done very well out of Channel 5 hit show Cruising with…
The programme, which aired days before Christmas, featured Scottish comedian Susan Calman as she sailed from Dover to Norway, taking in Scandinavia’s breathtaking rugged coastline.
Watched by some 3.5 million people, the show led to a 750% uplift in bookings on Hurtigruten’s Dover-based ship Maud and, four weeks later, bookings are still going strong. No wonder UK boss Anthony Daniels is smiling.
“It was absolutely crazy for us – we saw a real spike in bookings and engagement on social media. At one point our website even crashed – that wasn’t great,” he chuckles. “But it shows the level of demand.”
We meet at the end of January in the thick of the traditional wave period. As with most travel bosses, the onslaught of Omicron in December meant an uncertain time as Daniels – along with everyone else in travel – wondered what the emergence of the new variant might mean for sales in January.
But while there are still “gaps to fill for 2022”, Daniels says demand has remained steady. “Rebookings are averaging around 30-35%, but 60-70% of sales are new bookings,” he says. “That’s a really positive trend. We’re really happy with that.”
Nonetheless, Daniels acknowledges it has been noticeably different to a typical wave period. “We’ve got some mopping up to do for 2022,” he admits.
“We’re having to spend more focus and energy on this year than we would have done previously. But at the same time, we’re also focusing on getting ahead for 2023. Even during the worst times in Covid, when everyone was in lockdown, business was coming in for two years ahead. So we’ve got to make sure we cater for that.”
This is where the trade comes in. Unlike other lines (we meet the day Saga announced it was scaling back its trade operation), Hurtigruten is focused on strengthening its trade relationships.
It is bringing back face-to-face events and increasing the frequency of its agent product webinars to at least once a month. The line has also recently added an extra member to its sales team, and is ramping up marketing support for agents too.
“We’re trying to become a sales and marketing add-on for the trade for those agents who don’t have a big back office team that can support them,” he explains. “Independent agents are very, very valuable to us and we want to make sure we’ve got support plans in place for them as well as the larger agencies.”
NEW HORIZONS
Hurtigruten’s recent focus on warm water sailings is also creating opportunities for new agent partners, says Daniels. “We’ve always done incredibly well with the coast of Norway, but we feel our warm water sailings like the Galapagos, Africa, Canaries and Caribbean opens us up to new trade partners that we might not be talking to yet.
“There will be some out there we haven’t even spoken to yet, we need to find them and they need to find us. That’s on us as a company,” he adds. “We’ve got to do a better job of spreading that message and getting more people to understand what it is we actually do”.
The line will be hoping to roll out that message this year, as Daniels reveals an aim of hosting 1,000 agents – subject to Covid restrictions – from across the UK onboard Hurtigruten’s ships.
Three vessels – the most the line has ever had sailing out of the UK – will homeport in England and Scotland this year, with Maud sailing out of Dover, Spitsbergen based out of Glasgow and Fridtjof Nansen voyaging between Portsmouth and Liverpool. It’s a move which highlights the line’s commitment to the UK market, in addition a new London-based “HQ2”, set to open later this year
ECO GOALS
It’s not just the growing UK market keeping the line busy. Hurtigruten has in recent years strived to be recognised as a leader in sustainability, from its hybrid ships to its beach cleaning excursions. And Daniels says the company is keen to ensure its shoreside teams are also walking the talk.
“It’s fantastic our guests are doing these things [like beach cleans] when they’re in these remote places. But if the business units and sales and marketing offices aren’t following suit, you’re undermining the fantastic work that’s being done.”
The line has an internal team, established prior to the pandemic, focused on sustainability for the London office. “We started a process with the RSPB to do beach clean-ups with them and we’re always looking at ways to make our business working day more sustainable, even with small things like reducing printing. We haven’t had business cards in the company for some four years now,” he adds.
Daniels is also acutely aware of the need to do more when it comes to diversity and inclusion but acknowledges it’s a subject that should be addressed with care. “[D&I] is so often seen as a box ticking exercise or it’s just ignored. That’s not how we operate as a company. We want to be leaders when it comes to doing the right thing, it can’t just be something that looks good on a piece of paper.
“We need to think about what’s behind the voice; what’s behind the message? That’s got to be the important part,” he stresses. “It’s not just about changing a logo – everyone can do that. It’s about what’s behind that logo.”
Daniels says the firm is getting external help on this, with more news about the line’s D&I programme set to be announced next quarter. Elsewhere, Hurtigruten’s 128-year-old brand is being kept on its toes by a new rival upstart. Havila Voyages recently won a contract with the Norwegian government to sail the country’s coastline, acquiring four of the 11 slots available.
Is Daniels concerned about this new kid on the block? “We don’t feel that it’s going to impact negatively on us,” he insists. “It’ll make us look within and make sure that we still offer the heritage product. We always welcome competition as a company,” he adds with a grin. “We’ve got the legacy, and we are very proud of that.”
