Hurtigruten CEO Hedda Felin on tweaking the Norwegian coastal cruise experience

Hurtigruten Norway has for years attracted commuters and travelers alike to its signature Coastal Express cruise, which plies the coast of Norway. But a rebranding is coming to drop “Norway” from its name (and to change the name of sister division Hurtigruten Expeditions to HX). Hurtigruten CEO Hedda Felin sat down with cruise editor Andrea Zelinski at CruiseWorld to talk about how the brand and product are being changed to appeal specifically to North Americans.

Q: How important have North Americans been to the brand?

A: It has been a very small part of our guest portfolio in our source markets, mainly because our ships have been filled up from Europe, and we’re a very well-known brand in Europe. But now we have introduced new experiences to the portfolio, which is more adapted for North American markets.

Q: What kinds of experiences have you added or changed to better appeal to the North American market?

A: We have seven ships doing the Classic Route, which we have done for all these years. But we also introduced the North Cape Express and the Svalbard Express with a refurbished ship, the Trollfjord. It’s one ship that goes in the summer season to Svalbard and in the winter season from Oslo to North Cape. It’s more time in port, it’s more time to really experience Norway. So that was very important feedback from the North American travelers: Once they are in Norway, they don’t want one hour in Lofoten, they want a full day in Lofoten.

Q: How much more time will guests have in port?

A: We do one stop per day, and you have an average of six or seven hours per port. That’s quite important because on the Classic route, you have some port stops that will be up to eight hours but you have also some stops that are 30 minutes, where you don’t get to go off the ship. The main thought with this important adaptation is to really get an opportunity to immerse yourself in Norway while in port.

Q: What else do you notice about the North American traveler?

A: They especially seem to appreciate the very high focus on the northern lights and midnight sun in the summer, so we have reintroduced Follow the Light packages that combine several places in Scandinavia, with Finland and Stockholm in Sweden.

Q: Why are the northern lights focus so important?

A: We see many now have northern lights as part of their bucket lists. We have a very special northern lights promise: If you sail with us from October to March and you have a full roundtrip with us and you don’t see the northern lights, we send you back for free. That’s how confident we are.

Q: How many North Americans sail with you?

A: For the Coastal Express, it has been only around 10%, so that’s quite low. But we do see rapid growth in the new experience, the North Cape Express and Svalbard Express. It’s around 25%. We just see a lot of opportunities for growth. We might even need to add another ship if we continue like this.

Q: Is there anything else you think North Americans would appreciate?

A: We don’t like to fill our ship completely. It’s supposed to be calm and spacious. In this refurbished ship and the new experience, there’s a lot of food opportunities. Five different F&B outlets are included. That was also an adaptation for the North American market, to make it easier to know what’s included and what’s not included. The ship is refurbished in the very Scandinavian style all throughout. Premium, I would say.

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