HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions) is introducing an all-inclusive offering as standards across its fleet.
Chief commercial officer Alex Delamere-White told a Travel Weekly webcast the line believes “adventure should be all-inclusive”, and will begin rolling out the offer on Antarctica and Galapagos sailings in October, with all destinations added the following month.
The all-inclusive offering will include daily expeditions, full-board dining, unlimited alcoholic and soft drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities, professional photos from an onboard photographer, and a jacket and water bottle to take home.
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Delamere-White, who joined the specialist company in July, said the move was prompted by feedback from customers, who were concerned about “hidden extra costs”, and agents who said the expedition cruise offering was complicated and they wanted the line to make is “as easy as possible to sell”.
“Travel agents are critical to our success moving forward and we’re working really hard to strengthen our partnerships, but over the last year, one of the things agents were telling us was that expedition cruising is complicated and we needed to support them,” he said. “A big part of this was both clarifying and enhancing our proposition.
“Since joining the expedition cruise sector, I have been amazed at what incredible value it represents, so this is about making it very clear that adventure is all-inclusive with us.”
Delamere-White hailed the performance of UK agents during the wave period, saying the UK has been one of the line’s largest source markets over the last two months.
He said the trade has delivered a “fantastic result” in wave, with sales for 2025 doing “particularly well”.
He partly attributed the success to the introduction of a dedicated HX team in the UK, which was established last year.
“We are really pleased with the UK’s performance,” he said. “We are less than 12 months into having a dedicated team for HX in the UK and we’re making a lot of progress, but I think we’ve still got a long way to go.
“We’re really excited about what will happen in the UK market for us.”
Delamere-White said the line is keen to expand the pool of agents it works with, and it is looking to target members of the trade who might not have considered selling expedition cruise, but sell products which appeal to similar customers, such as safari holidays.
He said HX is focused on making sales as “effortless” as possible for agents, and it is introducing several initiatives to support that goal, such as the creation of a B2B helpdesk.
“For many of our travel agent partners, the frequency of sale is relatively low compared to mainstream cruise, so it’s really important that we make it effortless.
“We’re piloting a B2B helpdesk out of our call centre so UK calls from our agent partners are routed through to a dedicated team which understands the UK market, B2B distribution and how our agents work with us.
“The early signs are not only that they are selling more but they are more satisfied with the service they’re getting.”