On The Deck: Kathryn Beadle

The news that Hurtigruten had experienced a huge boost in its recent Arctic deployment probably hasn’t shocked many people. The small line from Norway has been quietly massing a growing army of fans for a number of years now – meaning its position as the specialist Norway cruise line is uncontested. While statistics onboard are impressive, it’s the entire picture around the brand which makes it something special. Eighty percent of Hurtigruten’s produce is sourced locally, all of their staff are Norwegian and the company offers some of the best shore excursions in the business. But how do you market a product which is so Norwegian to the UK? We spoke to the company’s managing director Kathryn Beadle to find out more.

As the managing director of the UK operation, how do you sell Hurtigruten? It’s obviously a product which is very rooted in Norway…
We celebrate that fact to be honest. It’s the one thing we do – and the thing you’ll see us doing more of – because as we’ve grown one of the things we’ve recognised that we need to do is celebrate our difference. Our USP is that we’re authentically Norwegian and we need to do more to promote that fact. All our crew are Norwegian, 80% of our produce is sourced locally and the excursions we offer are very different to the experiences offered on other cruise lines. It’s very much about getting closer to nature, knowing the history of the line and knowing the story of our produce.

A lot of people do know you for your shore excursions. Particularly experiences like camping on ice…
Yes, that’s in Antarctica. Our excursions are incredibly popular but if I put my hand on my heart, I don’t think we make enough of them. They are in some ways our biggest secret and we need to shout about them more. For people who are travelling with us, the experiences we can offer are phenomenal. Take camping in Antarctica. There are only a certain number of people who can do that and we have to select people by doing a lottery onboard the ship because it’s so popular. In Greenland we allow passengers to camp out on deck under the midnight sun. In the beautiful Lofoten Islands they can go horseback riding. It all adds to our expedition style cruising and shows just how different we are.

Who is the typical Hurtigruten customer?
It varies slightly with the time of year and whether they’re going to Antarctica, where you have to be slightly fitter, or to our more traditional regions. But generally they’re well travelled, they’re well educated and aren’t after a ‘deal’ but do want something that represents good value. They may see that in the fact that they can eat authentic food or go on an unusual excursion. In the summer we tend to have 55 year olds and over and in the winter because we operate a big short break programme, the age range will be brought down.

If you were to offer agents advice on selling Hurtigruten, what would you say?
Look at their customer base. Anyone who enjoys lakes and mountains would love Hurtigruten. The key is not to just look at people who have cruised before. The other thing is to market to customers why exactly Hurtigruten is so different. That’s what appeals to people. If you market us as just another cruise line we get lost in the mass of all the other white cruise ships. Whereas if you market our differences, that’s what really appeals to people. Also don’t be afraid of the price because we can demonstrate that the customer is not afraid of it.

During May’s Selling Cruise Conference, Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam said he would be looking to expand exploration cruises for the company…
That’s something we’d definitely look to do in the future. It’s within the plans of something moving forward. We have the Explorer right now and Daniel alluded to the fact that it would be great if we could have a second Explorer class ship. It’s a little way off yet but it’s one of our ambitions. In a mean time what we’ll look do is push our coastal programme – a huge proportion of which is actually in the Arctic Circle.

How agent friendly is Hurtigruten?
That is something you would have to ask agents. I’d hope, looking at the awards and accolades we’ve received over the last few years, that they would say we are very agent friendly. We don’t differentiate on price, we try to give agents as many tools to sell us as possible because we know that we’re unique and the opportunity to sell Hurtigruten won’t be an everyday occurrence. We have an agent website which gives lots of resources and we are really hot on training.

What’s your split between direct and trade?
It’s about 55% direct and 45% through the trade. Those statistics are something I’ve been talking about for many years now in that we have no issue for building sales with the trade. There’s no reason for those trade statistics not being higher apart from in the past we were viewed as being so different we weren’t getting the support from the trade – we are getting that support now which is great.

Is the trade figure rising?
It has risen but ironically it hasn’t this year. I think the reason for that is because there is so much discounting, and some very cheap offers out there. We’re finding that our bookings are holding their own but they’re coming in direct. I think the trade is concentrating on the deals and they don’t realise there are people out there who are prepared to pay a lot more to get a very different experience.