Previously 80% of the line’s market was Australian, with 10% UK and 10% US. Over the last year though, this has doubled to 20% of bookings coming from the UK.
Halfpenny also confirmed that Aurora’s new purpose-built ship, which was announced last month and will launch in October 2021, will go on sale at the end of October this year.
A naming competition for the new vessel will open to the public next week.
The ship will visit locations such as Papua New Guinea and eastern Russia.
“We want to focus on going further and seeing those untapped areas,” said Halfpenny.
Meanwhile the expedition line is noticing a trend for female solo travellers on its voyages.
"Our single supplement has been out for the last six weeks and is selling well," Halfpenny said. "60% of our passengers are female and 20% of these are single.
"We will often ask the married women onboard where their husbands are, and they tell us they didn’t want to come.
"Our trips are increasingly popular with solo female travellers,” added Halfpenny.
There are also a host of agent trips coming up, including a fam in November for half a dozen agents; two experience days to Scotland for 20 agents in September and 40 agents will visit Reykjavik over the course of next summer.
There are “loose” plans to run an Arctic educational next year.
