Hurtigruten targeting 'household name' status after triple Travel Industry Awards honour
Harry Kemble“If you look at our brand awareness – we’re not a household name,” insists Ant Daniels, Hurtigruten sales and marketing vice-president, as he reflects on a momentous night for the business.
Change is afoot, though, after the cruise operator claimed two awards at last week’s Travel Industry Awards by TTG – Expedition Cruise Line of the Year and UK and Ireland Travel Company of the Year – and was highly commended in another, Sustainable Travel Company of the Year.
Speaking to TTG after the awards, Daniels refuses to be drawn on which accolade gives him the most pride.
However, when pushed, he admits it was “special” to claim the inaugural Expedition Cruise Line of the Year award, before candidly revealing the Hurtigruten team were “shocked” to take home the coveted Travel Company of the Year award.
“We always expect it to be given to the bigger companies,” he tells me.
Daniels believes the triple honour will go some way towards ensuring Hurtigruten isn’t dismissed in a hurry by consumers, even if it is smaller than its rivals.
“From a customer point of view, our brand awareness is nowhere near the big companies,” Daniels adds.
"Even though we have a good size fleet across both products [expedition and coastal], we don’t even scratch the surface against the big companies. The work we do to build our brand awareness needs to go on. We’re pushing harder to be recognised.”
Two years ago, Hurtigruten took a huge step towards building brand awareness by splitting into two units – Hurtigruten Expeditions and Hurtigruten Norway.
The aim was to have two dedicated teams promoting and selling Hurtigruten’s compelling mix of products, which would ultimately help drive growth across both brands.
See all winners from the awards
Last month, the brand awareness work entered a new phase; Hurtigruten Norway became Hurtigruten and Hurtigruten Expeditions’ name was changed to HX.
At the time, Hurtigruten chief executive Daniel Skjeldam said: “Today’s evolution of our brand identities is the culmination of the work that started in 2021 when we split the two brands.”
Daniels, who was recently promoted to his current role at Hurtigruten, heading up the line’s coastal, heritage and iconic products, says the level of change has been “astronomical” – but necessary.
“Internally, we’ve changed – the challenge now is external,” Daniels says. “We still deliver the best coastal experience in Norway, but there are so many opportunities for different styles of holidays.
“We’re putting out that message so people don’t think we only operate in the winter. I would say our winter products equate to around to 70% of the business, so a significant share."
Daniels continues: “In the summer, we don’t have Northern Lights sailings, but there are opportunities with us to do touring in Norway which could be part of a Hurtigruten sailing.
“When we look at our counterparts, their peak season is summer, so there’s a nice dovetail from our point of view.”
Agents key
Another aim for Daniels is growing the company’s agent database. “We’re trying to get more agents – that’s one of the key targets,” Daniels continues.
“If you look at the make-up of our trade partners, we’ve got an incredibly long tail that do one, two or three bookings a year so there’s consistency, but around 80% of the business is driven by 20% of the agents.
“We must get our USPs across to the agencies that just sell our winter products.”
He adds the company wants to ensure the recent restructuring effort doesn’t “derail” what agent are doing with the line.
One part of Hurtigruten’s trade message is around its sustainability efforts. And while sustainability is not part of Daniels’ remit, he – like all 180 employees at the company – is acutely aware of the company’s sustainability goals.
“We talk about sustainability in our presentations,” Daniels explains. “Although sustainability sits outside the commercial team’s remit, we do talk about the opportunity that it represents and how we can use it as a strong PR message.”
He says Hurtigruten’s sustainability message to agents is “consistent”. “We need to make sure that we arm the agents with the right message,” Daniels adds.
“We feel it’s only right to have these conversations. It’s important that agents can deliver the same message to their customers. What this means for them and their future.”
Hurtigruten is aiming to launch a zero-emission ship by the end of the decade, while French cruise line Ponant hopes to be operating a cruise ship that will use wind power around the same time. The race is very much on.
“We’re absolutely confident we can deliver this [zero-emission] ship by 2030,” Daniels insists. “The best place to do this is in a country like Norway, where it is so advanced in terms of sustainability. There’s double the opportunity.”
Daniels says it will be important to keep any trade messaging around sustainability “simple”, adding: “Every company comes to them with their sustainability credentials so they need to be able to translate that.
“We need to really mindful about how we support the trade.”
He clearly knows that winning the hearts and minds of agents is a crucial part of Hurtigruten’s push to be seen as a major player in the market.
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Company number 08723341.
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