| Hurtigruten positivity

HURTIGRUTEN Group has reported record booking numbers for next year’s small ship experiences, with levels almost 50% higher than pre-pandemic.

Across both Expeditions and Norwegian Coastal Express, bookings for next year are currently 45% ahead.

Moreover, the recent lifting of travel restrictions and the introduction of vaccine passports to ease international travel has further accelerated reservations over the past 30 days, with an increase in booking momentum expected from larger markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In fact, next year’s booking inflow over that period is 101% higher than the last year’s booking inflow for the same 30-day period in 2019.

If adjusted for re-bookings, the growth in new reservations is 34% when compared to the same period in 2019.

“There is a huge pent-up demand for travel, and we see a substantial and growing demand for authentic adventure travel,” said Chief Executive Officer Daniel Skjeldam.

“After a very challenging year and a half for the entire travel industry, we are extremely excited about our step-by-step return to operations.”

Skjeldam added Hurtigruten had historically seen travellers seek out unique travel experiences, with a recent extreme increase in demand for the type of small ships/big experiences adventure travel it offers.

Hurtigruten will be hoping bookings accelerate even further, with Norwegian Coastal Express to be fully operational by Jul, and the Expeditions program to be gradually ramped up in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, revenue for the first quarter remained down 74.3% from 140.2 million to 36.1 million, but was in line with the fourth quarter of last year.

The total contrasts with a net cash burn rate of around 15 million per month, with prepayments from customers increasing to 16.6 million as of the end of the first quarter.

Hurtigruten also noted in its first quarter earnings presentation brand awareness had increased in Australia, as well as other large markets.