By
Laura Hyde |
While Swedish-American explorer and entrepreneur Lars-Eric Lindblad led the first just-for-fun expedition cruise in Antarctica in January 1966, the concept of expedition cruising for pleasure actually dates back to the 1890s. Adventurous travellers would sail routes along the coast of Norway with the shipping company that went on to become Hurtigruten.
“These travellers possessed a true explorer spirit,” says Gebhard Rainer, CEO of HX Expeditions. “Imagine being in a kayak amongst icebergs in 1896 – what an incredible achievement it must have been. While expedition cruising has since become more commercialised, HX Expeditions has retained that explorer spirit, welcoming guests who are curious by nature, interested in where they go and why they go there, and enjoy science and learning in general.”
In 2025, HX Expeditions legally separated from Hurtigruten to create a new, dedicated expedition cruise brand with 130 years of experience and history behind it. “The separation into two companies has enabled each to explore their full potential,” says Rainer. “Each company offers a very different product; Hurtigruten services the Norwegian coast extremely well and HX Expeditions offers exceptional, high-end expedition voyages to difficult-to-reach regions of the globe. Trying to do both as one company with one team limited the opportunities for growth and for each to offer an enriching customer experience. By becoming independent, we now have a clearly defined mission and purpose as an expedition cruise line with a focus on science, education and sustainability.”
Moving forward, Rainer is steering HX Expeditions away from comparisons to larger, more traditional cruise operators. “We’re not a cruise company; we’re an experience company,” says Rainer. “Our focus is on the overall experience and that’s the biggest difference between us and the more mainstream cruise brands who are branching out to offer expedition-style itineraries. If you cruise to Alaska with a larger cruise company, you’re at risk of passing by from a distance; you can go into port in the major destinations, but you don’t experience Alaska as it is.
“If you go to Alaska with HX Expeditions, you’ll go onto the land and experience Alaskan wildlife first-hand, and you’ll sail into fjords the big ships can’t enter. We’re working with indigenous people to design our itineraries, so you’ll experience Alaska from their point of view and you’ll have the opportunity to go to sacred places nobody else can. So, while cruise products might seem similar, there’s a big difference in the guest experience because expedition cruising is a specialist, and not easily scalable, product.”
Cruising Alaska with HX Expeditions means experiencing Alaskan wildlife first hand (Photo: HX Expeditions)
Demand for expedition cruises is growing. According to the 2025 State of the Cruise Industry Report from Cruise Lines International Association, it is the fastest-growing segment of the cruise industry, with 22 per cent more passengers choosing this type of voyage in 2024 compared with 2023. Rainer believes HX Expeditions’ focus on the experience of exploration resonates with today’s travellers, who he says are much more willing to spend money on experiences than they were a decade ago.
“The pandemic changed things,” he says. “Many of us realised how quickly things can alter, so we’re now much more willing to spend money on ourselves and our experiences because we understand the value of what we’re buying. Additionally, changing working habits and the increasing prevalence of technology in our lives is isolating us as humans, and this is where the expedition cruise industry has the biggest potential to grow. It’s a niche product but we are able to incorporate the social and emotional connections people crave.”
Discover more insights on expedition cruising and the wider passenger shipping industry in the Autumn/Winter 2026 issue of Cruise & Ferry Review. To get content like this on a regular basis, subscribe to the print editions or free digital editions of our Cruise & Ferry publications.
Read more: HX Expeditions introduces 26 new itineraries for 2028-2029 season