| Perry urges policy clarity

THE indecisiveness of Australia’s politicians is at the heart of the country’s reluctance to travel, believes Hurtigruten Managing Director APAC Damian Perry.

The cruise line has been conducting specific promotions within the Australian marketplace to get a clear understanding of what travellers are willing to commit to, and has found the bulk of the country is still in a travel “hibernation”, owing to the opacity of lawgivers.

“Committed travellers are already on board, but the others have still got to move forward, and this is due to the lack of clarity from our policymakers,” Perry told Cruise Weekly.

“They have left the market and the industry in flux, they’ve walked away from it because they can’t give any clarity on their processes, their thinking, their timelines.

“As you can see from the vaccine rollout which has been a disaster in its own right, it seems like there’s a huge amount of work that needs to be done to give some confidence back to the traveller and the marketplace.”

Unfortunately, Perry noted the change in Minister for Tourism from Simon Birmingham to Dan Tehan had also not yielded any positivity.

“Same old,” the Hurtigruten MD APAC confessed.

“They’ve had a long time to plan this out and think about this and work forward, but they’ve taken such a conservative approach and no-one is willing to put their hand up and put themselves out there and say this is the reality of what’s going to come.”

Fortunately, Perry noted “there’s been a huge commitment to Antarctica” for those keen to travel, particularly via Hurtigruten’s flight inclusive package and flexible booking terms.

With both Antarctica and Hurtigruten’s traditional Norwegian Coastal Express popular in Australia, Perry noted the cruise line’s strategic structural change (CW yesterday) would see similar aggressiveness to promote both sides of the business in this country.

“Over the last couple of years Australians have been lapping up our Expedition product,” he enthused.

“We’ll be putting similar effort into both businesses, but we can now be really specific.

“The growth aspirations are there from us, the market and the clientele.”

The structural change will see Hurtigruten’s business split into a Coastal Express and Expedition arm.