{
 "schema": "hk.cei.card/v1",
 "entity_id": "BR44",
 "name": "Aurora Expeditions",
 "parent": "Aurora Expeditions",
 "peer_group": "Expedition",
 "primary_segment": "Expedition cruise",
 "core_geographies": "Polar / global expedition",
 "release": "cei-2026-q4",
 "edition": "Q4 2026",
 "methodology": "v2.1",
 "grading_scale": "v2.1",
 "score": 73,
 "grade": "C-",
 "rank": 48,
 "of": 50,
 "peer_rank": 8,
 "peer_size": 8,
 "confidence": {
  "score": 87,
  "method": "counted_citations_v1",
  "counted_citations": [
   "AURORA_25",
   "BR44_PXFLEET",
   "BR44_PXAWARD"
  ]
 },
 "summary": "Adventure credibility and purpose-built expedition hardware. Its scale is smaller than the biggest expedition specialists.",
 "narrative": "Aurora Expeditions pairs polar heritage dating to 1991 with three new X-BOW expedition ships, which gives it adventure credibility and modern hardware. Trustpilot reviewers rate it 4.5/5. Its limit is scale, which trails the biggest expedition specialists.",
 "strengths": [
  "Adventure credibility backed by purpose-built expedition hardware.",
  "Founder heritage since 1991 plus fleet expansion with X-BOW expedition ships.",
  "Deep polar heritage paired with newer ships."
 ],
 "fragilities": [
  "Scale is smaller than the biggest expedition specialists.",
  "Aurora is private, and its 4.3/5 Cruise Critic score rests on only 14 reviews.",
  "Aurora must keep its adventure proposition sharp against larger expedition specialists."
 ],
 "what_moves_this_letter": [
  "Whether Aurora's polar authority keeps translating into occupancy and pricing resilience.",
  "Whether the three-ship X-BOW fleet earns its return at Aurora's scale after the CEO change.",
  "Whether adventure credibility keeps Aurora's lane distinct from larger rivals."
 ],
 "pillars": [
  {
   "id": "demand_quality",
   "name": "Demand Quality",
   "weight_pct": 13,
   "score": 74,
   "class_median": 81.0,
   "evidence_mode": "high_confidence_proxy"
  },
  {
   "id": "pricing_revenue_integrity",
   "name": "Pricing & Revenue Integrity",
   "weight_pct": 13,
   "score": 77,
   "class_median": 83.0,
   "evidence_mode": "high_confidence_proxy"
  },
  {
   "id": "destination_itinerary_advantage",
   "name": "Destination & Itinerary Advantage",
   "weight_pct": 13,
   "score": 85,
   "class_median": 82.0,
   "evidence_mode": "official_source_snapshot"
  },
  {
   "id": "product_experience",
   "name": "Product & Experience",
   "weight_pct": 12,
   "score": 80,
   "class_median": 80.0,
   "evidence_mode": "multi_source_primary"
  },
  {
   "id": "distribution_channel_productivity",
   "name": "Distribution & Channel Productivity",
   "weight_pct": 9,
   "score": 63,
   "class_median": 75.0,
   "evidence_mode": "official_source_snapshot"
  },
  {
   "id": "ancillary_onboard_monetization",
   "name": "Ancillary & Onboard Monetization",
   "weight_pct": 9,
   "score": 63,
   "class_median": 73.0,
   "evidence_mode": "official_source_snapshot"
  },
  {
   "id": "crm_loyalty_ltv",
   "name": "CRM, Loyalty & LTV",
   "weight_pct": 9,
   "score": 67,
   "class_median": 79.5,
   "evidence_mode": "official_source_snapshot"
  },
  {
   "id": "commercial_execution_discipline",
   "name": "Commercial Execution Discipline",
   "weight_pct": 13,
   "score": 71,
   "class_median": 79.0,
   "evidence_mode": "official_source_snapshot"
  },
  {
   "id": "strategic_flexibility_resilience",
   "name": "Strategic Flexibility & Resilience",
   "weight_pct": 9,
   "score": 65,
   "class_median": 74.0,
   "evidence_mode": "high_confidence_proxy"
  }
 ],
 "card_source_codes": [
  "AURORA_25",
  "BR44_PXFLEET",
  "BR44_PXAWARD",
  "BR44_PXRATE"
 ],
 "guest_rating": null,
 "developments": [
  {
   "date": "2026-05-01",
   "headline": "Largest Antarctic season: 30 voyages, 30% more guests",
   "detail": "Aurora ran 30 Antarctic voyages in 2025-26 with three ships in the region for the first time. It carried 30% more expeditioners than the previous season.",
   "source_id": "AURORA_ANT26"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-05-15",
   "headline": "CEO Michael Heath resigns; successor search under way",
   "detail": "CEO Michael Heath, in post since June 2022, is leaving. The board has started a recruitment process for his successor.",
   "source_id": "AURORA_CEO26"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-08",
   "headline": "Cruise Critic rates Aurora Expeditions 4.3/5 on 14 reviews",
   "detail": "Cruise Critic's Aurora Expeditions page shows 4.3 of 5 across only 14 reviews. The sample is too thin to weigh.",
   "source_id": "AURORA_CCREV26"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-17",
   "headline": "Product & Experience pillar added",
   "detail": "Three purpose-built X-BOW expedition ships: Greg Mortimer (2019), Sylvia Earle (2022) and Douglas Mawson (2025, maiden voyage December 2025). Ranked #5 in Condé Nast Traveller's 2025 Readers' Choice Awards, up from #14 the prior year. Cruise Critic shows 4.3 of 5 from only 14 reviews, too few to count, so the guest-rated part of this score uses the peer-group median.",
   "source_id": "BR44_PXFLEET"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-10-01",
   "headline": "Trustpilot rates Aurora Expeditions 4.5/5 across 302 reviews",
   "detail": "Aurora's Trustpilot page read 4.5 of 5 across 302 reviews on 1 October 2026. A September 2025 snapshot had shown 4.7 across 257.",
   "source_id": "AURORA_TPREV26"
  }
 ],
 "current_sources": [
  "AURORA_TPREV25",
  "AURORA_CCREV26",
  "BR44_PXFLEET",
  "BR44_PXAWARD",
  "BR44_PXRATE",
  "AURORA_CEO26",
  "AURORA_ANT26",
  "AURORA_TPREV26"
 ],
 "sources_verified_on": "2026-10-01",
 "sources": {
  "AURORA_25": {
   "title": "Why Aurora Expeditions",
   "date": "accessed 5 September 2026",
   "url": "https://www.aurora-expeditions.com/about-us/",
   "label": "Aurora Expeditions Overview"
  },
  "BR44_PXFLEET": {
   "title": "Aurora Expedition Ships — Our Small Expedition Vessels",
   "date": "accessed September 2026",
   "url": "https://www.aurora-expeditions.com/au/ship",
   "label": "Aurora Expedition Ships — Our Small Expedition Vessels"
  },
  "BR44_PXAWARD": {
   "title": "Award-Winning Small-Ship Expeditions — Aurora Expeditions",
   "date": "2025 (accessed September 2026)",
   "url": "https://www.aurora-expeditions.com/awards",
   "label": "Award-Winning Small-Ship Expeditions — Aurora Expeditions"
  },
  "BR44_PXRATE": {
   "title": "Cruise Critic Member Reviews",
   "date": "read 17 September 2026 (site blocks automated re-verification; read in a browser 1 October 2026)",
   "url": "https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/aurora-expeditions/reviews",
   "label": "Cruise Critic Member Reviews"
  },
  "AURORA_TPREV25": {
   "title": "Aurora Expeditions Trustpilot company page",
   "date": "search-index snapshot 20 September 2025 (site blocks automated re-verification; checked 7 September 2026)",
   "url": "https://www.trustpilot.com/review/auroraexpeditions.com.au",
   "label": "Trustpilot: Aurora Expeditions"
  },
  "AURORA_CCREV26": {
   "title": "Aurora Expeditions Reviews (CruiseCritic)",
   "date": "search-index snapshot accessed 8 September 2026 (site blocks automated re-verification; read in a browser 1 October 2026)",
   "url": "https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/aurora-expeditions/reviews",
   "label": "CruiseCritic: Aurora Expeditions reviews"
  },
  "AURORA_CEO26": {
   "title": "Aurora Expeditions CEO Michael Heath Resigns After Four Years",
   "date": "15 May 2026",
   "url": "https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2026/05/aurora-expeditions-ceo-michael-heath-resigns-after-four-years/",
   "label": "Cruise Industry News: Aurora CEO resigns"
  },
  "AURORA_ANT26": {
   "title": "Aurora Expeditions Completes Largest Antarctic Season",
   "date": "1 May 2026",
   "url": "https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2026/05/aurora-expeditions-completes-largest-antarctic-season/",
   "label": "Cruise Industry News: Aurora's largest Antarctic season"
  },
  "AURORA_TPREV26": {
   "title": "Aurora Expeditions Trustpilot company page",
   "date": "read 1 October 2026",
   "url": "https://www.trustpilot.com/review/auroraexpeditions.com.au",
   "label": "Trustpilot: Aurora Expeditions (live read)"
  }
 },
 "unresolved_source_ids": [],
 "card_url": "https://hawkeskwortnik.com/commercial-excellence-index/industry/#brand=BR44",
 "page": "https://hawkeskwortnik.com/readings/cei/aurora-expeditions",
 "data": "https://hawkeskwortnik.com/data/cei/cei-2026-q4/BR44.json",
 "method": "https://hawkeskwortnik.com/readings/method",
 "license": "CC BY-ND 4.0, attribute to Hawkes & Kwortnik with the edition",
 "note": "Copied from the data the live report card renders. Ungraded or missing values are null, never imputed."
}