Hurtigruten is adding more themed Northern Lights cruises in Norway this winter after last year’s programme sold out months in advance.
The new Northern Lights’ brochure features two five-night astronomy cruises, departing on February 3 and March 11, and two seven-night digital photography cruises, on January 22 and February 2. Last year there was only one of each.
There is also a seven-night opera voyage, departing January 4, repeated from last year, when there will be a selection of on-board concerts.
The brochure, which features cruises along the Norwegian coast ranging from three to 12 nights, also has a new five-night New Year at the North Cape cruise, with passengers at Europe’s most northerly point at midnight on December 31, ready to welcome in 2010.
The cruise, from Tromsø to Honningsvåg on board Richard With, departs December 29 and costs from £1,285 per person including flights. The astronomy cruises cost from £985 per person including flights.
Hurtigruten sales and marketing director Kathryn Beadle said the themed trips were so successful last year the cruiseline could not meet the demand.
She said: “Agents who got behind our astronomy, photography and opera voyages did exceptionally well. We know the demand is there and hope more agents will reap the rewards this winter.”
Beadle said Hurtigruten will be holding workshops around the UK for agents who want to increase their groups business, which rose by more than 300% last winter.
The cruiseline offers free places for the 11th passenger on group bookings, which agents can pass on to customers, use as an escort place or simply add to their bottom line.
The new brochure also features a selection of new pre-bookable cruises that are fully commissionable to agents. They include reindeer sledging in Tromsø, with a meal in a Sami tent, which costs from £120 per person for four hours, a five-hour trip into the countryside outside Tromsø in search of the Northern Lights, from £70 per person, and a guided walk in Tromsø, including a visit to the Polar Museum and Catholic Church, from £25 per person.
Prices in the programme start from £495 per person including flights, for a three-night cruise from Tromsø to Trondheim.