The line will also be sailing to Canada as well as the world’s longest fjord in Greenland, which extends 350 kilometers inland, on its newest ship Midnatsol.
The ship will spend its winter 2016/17 season sailing the Norwegian coastal route, before then offering nine new itineraries from May to August 2017.
These will include Greenland, Iceland and Arctic Canada, with the ship sailing to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Overall, the new expanded programme will feature 23 new itineraries and more than 180 ports of call in 18 countries.
Hurtigruten’s ship Fram will offer the line’s first inland voyage, when the ship will sail along the Amazon during a 16-night “Expedition to the Amazon Rainforest”.
The ship also has two new itineraries on the Pacific coast of South America and a new “Wildlife in the south Atlantic ocean” itinerary in October 2017, which includes a longer stay in the Falkland islands.
Hurtigruten’s UK and Ireland head of sales Anthony Daniels said 2017 would see the line’s most diverse programme. “[It] retains our heritage as a polar specialist, but gives customers plenty of new experiences to choose from,” he added.
The news was released in the week that Hurtigruten confirmed its ambition to offer expedition voyages on ships powered by battery technology and algae fuel.
It came as Hurtigruten chief executive Daniel Skjeldam told the Paris climate change conference: “The cruise and the maritime transport industries must accept greater environmental responsibility.
“Hurtigruten is already strongly committed. Rapid progress also requires appropriate political framework and the obligation from the maritime sector as a whole”.
Skjeldam said he wanted the line to achieve similar to what had been reached by the car sector in recent years, but said the world needed “brave and innovative politicians”.
“We need political carrots and sticks to stimulate the market in utilising green technology,” he added.
Hurtigruten has recently partnered with a Norwegian international environmental NGO to explore how it might be able to offer zero emission explorer cruises.
The foundation is working alongside Hurtigruten to examine how the current fleet can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and how the in future it might be able to dvelop hybrid ships.
