THERE’S a wildfire building across Australia
and it has nothing to do with the Aussie bush,
but rather a Norwegian cruise line called
Hurtigruten, and the thousands of Australians
that are beginning to discover just what the
century old company has to offer.
Established in 1893 as a way to link northern
and southern Norway and its really remote
communities, delivering mail, cargo and
passengers, Hurtigruten (which roughly
translated, means ‘fast route’) has grown
exponentially over the past century and now
offers cruising along the Norwegian coast,
Greenland, Spitsbergen, Europe and Antarctica.
Whilst the company is well known in Norway
and Germany, the company is not a household
name in Australia, however if the recent
booking figures are anything to go by, that
status quo is getting a severe shake-up.
Speaking to CW whilst on a whirlwind tour of
Australia last week, Hurtigruten’s MD Kathryn
Beadle, said that the number of Australians
booking Hurtigruten cruises has grown by 15%
in the past year, and shows no sign of slowing
down in the next 12 months.
Hurtigruten’s burgeoning popularity in
Australia is being attributed to several factors,
including a greater awareness of what the
cruise line has to offer, as well as a two-year
peak in Northern Lights activity.
“We’ve worked hard to get a higher
awareness of the product out there and once
somebody looks into us and realises that there
is a high satisfaction level with our cruisers, and
that there is something that’s very different
about us, word of mouth spreads,” Beadle said.
“The big change that we’ve seen in the
Australian market is the number of people that
now travel in the (northern hemisphere)
winter to experience the Northern Lights.
“Previously our Australian market was really
concentrated in the European summer
months, but over the last 12 months that’s
changed drastically,” she added.
Beadle also said that the growth of
Hurtigruten in the Aussie market may have
something to do with a certain symbiosis
between Australian travellers and the
experiences that the cruise line offers.
“I think Australians love to travel and I think
our product suits the Australian market
brilliantly because our market is people who
are well travelled, they are well educated,
they’re not travelling with us because they
want an endless choice of meals (although our
food is absolutely fantastic and all locally
sourced), people are travelling with us because
they want the authentic experience, and that’s
what Australians like,” Beadle said.
“Glitz and glamour is not what we’re about,
and that’s not what we want to be about, we
are really about letting people enjoy Norway,
for us it’s all about the destination,” she added.
To learn more about Hurtigruten see your
travel agent, or visit www. hurtigruten.com.au.
