HX aims to be ‘at forefront of growth’ in expedition sector

HX has “bold ambitions” to grow its business and “reset” how it operates with the trade, its sales chief has said.

The plans follow the line’s split from Hurtigruten in January which led its new chief executive to outline the vision of expanding its fleet and destination portfolio from 2026.

Nathaniel Sherborne, HX vice-president and managing director for Europe and global sales enablement, said: “It’s a really exciting time for the sector in terms of expedition cruising, and for HX we’ve got bold ambitions, both in the UK but also globally, and we want to be at the forefront of that growth.”

Sherborne said the split from Norwegian coastal specialist Hurtigruten presented “a unique opportunity” for HX to “reset” how it wants to work with the trade and position its brand.

“We have been very clear in our ambition to grow our trade business,” he said. “We grew quite significantly last year, and we want to keep growing. That is not stopping.”

HX now has a fully dedicated team based in the UK, as opposed to the previous arrangement of sharing resources based in Tallinn, Estonia.

Sherborne is currently looking for additional resources in the line’s UK sales team to support growth plans, while recruitment elsewhere has been “future-focused” with 15 guest experience specialists already on phones to help agents.

He said: “The message we want to send is that while clearly there are other operators that want a piece of the UK market, which I can completely understand, there are few, if any, that have the level of commitment to the UK market that HX does.

“We have a head office based in London, with finance, IT, call centre and sales teams absolutely focused on the UK market.”

To further engage with the trade, HX launched its biggest ever booking incentive, ‘Sell three, sail free’, earlier this year which will run for four months until the end of October, to encourage agents to make their first expedition bookings and become long-term partners.

He said: “We recognised that expedition cruising does take some time and consideration for people, but there’s a real opportunity for people to be incentivised once they’ve got the first one over the line [and] the confidence will grow.

“We want long-term partnerships with our trade partners and long-term consideration, and we realise that these things won’t happen overnight.”

Sherborne revealed that 22 days into the campaign, HX had already got a winner in the UK who has decided to opt for a suite in Greenland in 2026.

Sherborne is also planning on building a suite of email and social media assets for the trade, along with investments to allow agents to co-brand invoices and documentation as well.

He said: “We want to pull out all the stops to ensure we provide the tools available to make this product a compelling selling point for many more guests, because I know for a fact there are millions of customers in the UK who would love this experience. They just don’t know about it yet.”

Sherborne urged agents to consider the “untapped area” of speaking to clients who want to go on or have already been on safari.

He said: “I personally would have a call out to any agency that’s selling safaris or have those guests on their database. If you haven’t got expedition cruise on your website as a proposition, you’re probably missing a trick.”