The new HX CEO Gebhard Rainer was in Australia recently to meet with the local team and connect with trade. Karryon Luxury caught up with Rainer and fellow colleagues in Sydney to discuss how HX are well positioned for the growing experience economy.
It’s been a busy, whirlwind past week for Gebhard Rainer, new HX CEO; Alex Delamere-White, Chief Commercial Officer; Chloe Couchman, Executive Vice President of Communications – along with Australian-based team members Damian Perry, Managing Director and Vice President, Sales & Marketing, APAC; Joel Victoria, Head of Marketing APAC; and Amber Wilson, Sales Director APAC as they visited Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne – as well as attending a media event in Hobart.
In Sydney, HX hosted a dinner at Manta restaurant along the Finger Wharf at Woolloomooloo for key trade partners, sharing more details about the journey HX has taken since becoming its own entity earlier this year.
During our interview the following day, Rainer discussed the evolution of the travel industry towards personalised, experiential journeys; and HX’s approach which is rooted in sustainability and science education, differentiating it from its competitors.
On the importance of this market, Chief Commercial Officer Alex Delamere-White said that travel advisors were “critical” to the company’s long term success.
“Australia and New Zealand are actually one of our most successful markets from a B2B perspective. Our share is well over 70 per cent of our business that comes through trade. This week is about recognising the success that we’ve had, but also talking about the future and the fastest growing sector within cruise,” said Delamere-White.
“What we’re certainly seeing more of is people saying, ‘I’m not selling a lot…I really want to capitalise on this’ and that’s where we come in: in terms of the fantastic team that we’ve got under Damian’s leadership, giving them the confidence to sell what is a complicated product. We are hugely excited by the Australian and New Zealand market, and B2B will be critical to our success,” he said.
The experience economy in luxury travel
Gebhard Rainer is certainly well familiar with the needs and desires of luxury travellers. He stepped into the CEO role at HX in July 2024, following a longstanding career in the luxury hospitality sector which included time at Sandals Resort International; and 26 years with Hyatt Corporation.
Whether it’s hotels or cruising, Rainer says at the end of the day everything revolves around the customer.
“The evolution of travel has gone to a space now where consumers are looking for much more personalised experiences, for travel with a purpose, and where they want to align their own personal values with the brands that they associate with – be it in travel or consumer goods. We’re really going more into an experience economy that has a greater focus on individual, personalised experiences,” he said.
Rainer says that this desire for personalised experiences is being fuelled by a growing feeling of being more emotionally isolated in our daily work and lives because of the evolution of technology.
“We think that we now socialise through these mobile devices, specifically the younger generation, and in many ways we have lost the ability to socialise as human beings. We’ve lost the ability to understand emotional signals and triggers and react to them,” he said.
As a result, he says people are craving holidays with purpose and meaning; and where they have emotional experiences with like-minded individuals.
“What we have from an expedition cruise perspective, we fit very well in providing these personalised experiences to individuals… and the emotional connection, both with other human beings, but also with the surroundings, the destinations that we go into, with the experiences they have in the destinations, with communities, and with wildlife, geology, flora and fauna,” he said.
Innovation and differentiation
Rainer says that HX works on the premise of three main principles: sustainability, science education, and the comfort of its ships with an approach of casual luxury.
Each ship has a science lab with scientists on board, with HX supporting the scientific community throughout the year.
“We work with more than 30 different science institutes and universities. We donate just under 2,000 cabin nights every year to the scientific community in order for them to be able to do what they have to do, for example to be transported to the Arctic or the Antarctic, to get onto their research stations, to perform those research projects on board,” said Rainer.
“The beauty with that is that our customers can actually participate as citizen scientists in those projects,” he said.
During this same visit, the team visited Hobart to announce a world-first program and collaboration with The University of Tasmania and its Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), who the cruise line has been working with for the past four years.
The new program will give HX guests and expedition teams the unique opportunity to explore Antarctic and polar science with world-leading researchers, in a university-developed program that will blend immersive learning with real-world experiences.
Launching in the late 2024 season, an online course can be accessed anywhere in the world for both guests and expedition staff; while participants on the ships will experience an enriched journey through the polar region of Antarctica and upon completion, participants will receive an official University of Tasmania certificate.
HX is the first company to operate two electric hybrid vessels and to drop heavy fuel in 2008; as well as being the first cruise company to eliminate all single use plastics on board back in 2018.
“We’ve been trailblazing and leading in the area of sustainability. From an exhibition cruise perspective, we work with local and Indigenous communities up north in Greenland, in the Arctic areas of Canada where we sit down with communities well in advance and ask them what we can do for them, rather than going in and saying we’re coming with 200 or 300 tourists, can you put up a show for us? Because that’s not really helpful,” said Rainer.
Money from the HX Foundation’s Rapid Response Fund are regularly drawn on to support those communities and help, with the captains on its ships empowered to make instantaneous decisions to help communities when they see an immediate need for medical aid, healthcare or supplies.
The HX expression of luxury
Rainer says that luxury to HX is experiential luxury or casual luxury. There’s no dressing up in order to go to the dining room after a day of excursions and adventure.
“It is casual, but it’s of the highest quality. For example the culinary offering on board is of the finest quality. When you look at the cabins and the suites that we have on our ships, they’re absolutely comparable and competing with land-based accommodation – and I can affirmatively say this because I’ve come from that industry into the cruise industry,” he said.
“I think what defines luxury in our segment specifically is the experiences. It comes back to the intangible, which becomes almost priceless when you do it right. This is where the opportunity for us is in creating these personal experiences…. creating memories that are very impactful and helps them to see the world with different eyes,” he said.
He says the company uses the word ‘luxury’ very carefully and sparingly, given the general over-use of the term in the industry in recent years.
“We use it selectively in terms of what our expression and interpretation of luxury is in the expedition cruise segment that we operate in, within the product and the experiences that we offer. I would not label us as ‘HX luxury expedition cruises’…..that’s not the primary focus. Our focus is not on being seen as that luxury cruise company. Our focus is to be seen as a high end, experiential expedition cruise company that is unique in many ways, and separates itself from the competition by the belief and the execution that we have,” he said.
Multi-generational travel
The average age of the HX guest is around 57 years – but Rainer says that the guest age can range from 25 to 95.
Rather than a specific demographic, Rainer says it’s more the mindset of the traveller that makes for an ideal HX guest: someone active with a curious nature, a desire to learn and understand the science behind what they may experience; “as well as a desire to understand, from a sustainability point of view, what actually goes on in the world and why things happen”.
There’s a minimum age of five for Antarctica and seven for the Galápagos Islands.
“Our marketing director went on an intergenerational holiday recently. He took his 11 year old son, his parents, his brother in law, and their family. The 11 year old just had the most incredible experience and loved the adventure, wildlife and snorkelling experiences,” said Alex Delamere-White.
The future of expedition cruising: what’s in store?
As the fastest-growing sector in the cruise industry, Rainer predicts there is going to be further expansion in expedition cruising in terms of the destinations and offerings.
“I think there are still a lot of destinations that are unexplored…and in the current destinations, there are still variations that can be created so that it’s not always the same.”
He also says that regulations are going to increase with regional governments intent on being more protective about the environment and their communities.
HX already works very closely with two key environmental organisations: IAATO, The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators; and AECO, The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators, where senior HX staff member Karin Strand, Vice President Expeditions Development, serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee.
“I think the mindfulness in terms of how we visit these environments is going to increase as well. Competitors you see today, you may not see tomorrow – there’s going to be a natural process of those that can actually cope with adjusting to those changes in the operating environment, and those that can’t.
“From a consumer perspective, the interest level will continue to increase. What we have seen with the next generations is they are coming into more affluence and they are spending more money on themselves and personalised experiences – and aligning their values with the values of the brands that they are willing to be associated with,” said Rainer.
Encouraging travellers to choose adventures over material goods, HX is currently promoting a Green Friday sale, offering up to 25 per cent off select expeditions for bookings made before 9 December.
For more information, visit travelhx.com
