7 Things Aurora Expeditions’ Director of Global Sales Wants Advisors to Know About the Brand

For travel advisors specializing in expedition cruising, Aurora Expeditions might not be an unknown name. For the rest of the industry, Aurora is less well known.

Despite being under the radar in North America, the cruise line is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2026 having begun operations in 1991 in Australia.

The cruise line only truly began shifting some of its focus to North America in 2018. It has been expanding its North American sales team consistently since 2024 with key hires including Anthony Iozzia as sales director for the Northeast and key accounts in June 2025, Erick Valdes as sales director for the Midwest and key accounts in July 2025, Beth Mercier as vice president of sales for North America in March 2026, and Sue Haefner as director of trade marketing for North America in January 2026, among many others.

As Aurora’s presence has grown in the U.S., so too has its sales.

“We’ve done a great job in growing in North America,” said the expedition cruise line’s director of global sales, David Tanguay. “If I look at sales, we’ve grown 40% year-over-year… When I joined three years ago, we were [a team of] four in North America. Now we have a team of six BDMs or sales directors out there talking to advisors and telling them about Aurora Expeditions.”

While he said that Aurora is “still newish,” he believes the brand has moved down the sales and marketing funnel.

“Three years ago, we were very top of the funnel, where we were saying: Who are we? Who is Auroa? This is who we are. We’re not a startup. We’ve been here a long time. We just haven’t been in North America. Now, three years later, we’re down to: Why Aurora? Our focus is why should you choose Aurora versus somebody else.”

To help answer that question, TMR caught up with Tanguay, at last month’s Seatrade Cruise Global conference in Miami. Tanguay, who is based on Toronto, joined Aurora in August 2023.  Here are seven things we learned about Aurora Expeditions that travel advisors will want to know.

1. Themed Polar Expeditions are Purpose-Led

When we asked Tanguay about Aurora’s differentiators, he pointed to the brand’s theme cruises, specifically in the polar regions, as one example.

“We’re purposed-led,” he said. “We want to fulfill the purposes that passengers want to accomplish when they travel to these regions.”

Two of the line’s themed voyages are photography and women’s only travel.

Speaking of the former, Tanguay told TMR that Aurora limits its 130-passenger ships to 100 guests in order to guarantee more time on land in one spot.

“Photographers, when they go to Antarctica, their primary objective is to spend as much time as possible in one location, to have that unique light,” he explained. “We organize early morning landings, late evening landings.”

Furthermore, Aurora provides one professional photographer for every six passengers onboard.

Aurora’s women’s only expeditions launched about 18 months ago and are starting to gain traction. During these expedition cruises, all expedition leaders and lecturers are women. 

“The increase in demand of women-only wanting to travel with us has been really eye opening,” Tanguay said, adding the line now has two of them on the books, both in Antarctica.

2. Aurora’s Most Popular Itinerary Is Activity Driven

 Aurora’s newest theme cruise concept – Active Antarctica, which launched this past Antarctica season – has turned out to be its most popular… by far, Tanguay told TMR. With this itinerary, Aurora bundles up all the typically extra-fee activities like snorkeling, camping, snowshoeing, and paddling, and incudes the in the cruise fare.

“If you book this trip, it’s because you want to do as many activities as possible. Since it’s launch, it is our number one selling program,” he said.   

Tanguay added that on typical expedition an activity like kayaking would be offered, at an extra fee, for the entire length of the voyage, giving paddlers the chance to truly immerse themselves in the destination from that perspective.

“We’re seeing a shift in people saying no, no, I just want to do it once. Then I want to do something else and then something else,” he said.

There will be two Active Antarctica voyages in 2026 and three in 2027.

3. Aurora’s X-Bow Fleet Makes for Smoother Sailing

Auroa’s fleet comprises the Greg Mortimer, Sylvia Earle, and Douglas Mawson, all of which feature the Ulstein X-Bow, a specialized, inverted bow design that minimizes a ship’s propensity to slam against the waves and increased fuel efficiency, especially in rough seas.

“Smoother. That’s the key word,” Tanguay told TMR. “What the X-Bow technology does is it slices through the waves, so it offers smoother open-water navigation with the help of our stabilizes.”

Tanguay emphasized that doesn’t mean you won’t feel the movement of the ocean. The Drake Shake is still going to give an Aurora ship a shaking, but it will be less than on other ships.

It’s not just the smoother ride that makes the X-Bow design enjoyable for guests onboard, Tanguay added.

“The bow has windows, so when you’re in the atrium, in the library, you have all these windows and you can see the ship going through all this amazing scenery.”

The X-Bow also allows Aurora to take its ships into icier areas of the Antarctic, providing more wildlife encounters opportunities than some other cruise lines.

4. Other Differentiators: Maximized Time Outside, Citizen Science

Not every Antarctica cruiser is the same. Some simply want to cross a seventh continent off their list and don’t care how much time they spend outside. Some want to immerse themselves while off ship but onboard, they only want to relax. Some want context for everything they’re seeing others don’t.

Who, then is the Aurora cruiser, we asked Tanguay.

First and foremost, he said, the Aurora client is the one who says, when I go to Antarctica, my goal is to be outside as much as possible.

Everyone is off the ship multiple times per day. There is no group waiting to get off the ship, while others are on Zodiacs or landing.

“If you combine the morning and afternoon landings, we’re looking at five to six hours per day outside.”

Secondly, the Aurora guest wants to participate. Not only in the activities ashore, but in scientific research that might ultimately help the destination they’re visiting.

“We have a citizen science program where we involve all of our passengers into the experience,” Tanguay said.

For instance, in destinations with whale populations, guests are encouraged to upload their photos of whale tails into the HappyWhale database in order to help with tracking. With the FjordPhyto study, guests use simple tools to collect phytoplankton samples, while Aurora’s partnership with eBird encourages guests to track bird species. Guests can also help with measuring water clarity, tracking snow algae, and more.

5. Quiet Nights

With so much time spent off the ship, nights onboard an Aurora expedition ship are quiet. There is no entertainment.

“We tried,” Tanguay told TMR, speaking of trying to make after-dinner evenings livelier. “People said, I’m done. See you tomorrow… If that’s what the client is looking for as an experience, that’s when they should choose Aurora.”

6. Sailing Outside the Poles

While Aurora is best known for its polar expeditions, like most other expedition cruise lines, the cruise line does visit non-polar destinations during the repositioning season. With three ships – the Douglas Mawson joined the fleet in December 2025 – and growing demand for non-polar itineraries from its repeat customers, Aurora is even expanding these offerings.

“That’s the reason why we’re expanding in the non-polar. Because our passengers are telling us, we’ve kind of done everything Auora does, now we’re going to have to go somewhere else, and we’re like wait.”

Tanguay also insists expedition cruising isn’t only about wildlife.

“It’s about the immersive experience. And that is the value that Aurora Expedition provides to passengers… It’s to go to places, for example, places in Scotland that are less obvious, like the Orkneys, that are less accessible and provide a more in-depth experience,” he said.

7. Solo Friendly

Visiting the Poles is not a budget trip. There’s no getting around that, but for solo travelers it can be even more pricey. To keep polar cruising accessible to solos, Aurora holds 10 cabins on each sailing for solo travelers without a single supplement.