Steve McLaughlin is at the forefront of luxury adventure travel, leading Aurora Expeditions through a period of unprecedented growth.
With a passion for immersive, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, he has been key in expanding the company’s small-ship fleet – most recently with the upcoming launch of Douglas Mawson in December 2025. As demand for experiential travel soars, McLaughlin shares insights on why destinations like Antarctica and the Arctic remain top choices for travelers seeking meaningful, bucket-list adventures.
How is the experiential travel trend playing out in the luxury market?
Experiential travel IS the new Luxury travel. The growth in recent years has been expediential. In the last 5 years Aurora Expeditions doubled its berth capacity in 2019, introducing an amazing new purpose-built small ship build launching – the Greg Mortimer. We also doubled our fleet in 2022 launching our second small ship, the Sylvia Earle. In December 2025 we are launching our third small ship to our fleet – Douglas Mawson – allowing Aurora to visit even more amazing destinations globally.
What are people always willing to splurge on?
At Aurora Expeditions our top selling destinations continue to be Antarctica and Arctic. These Unique “Bucket List” travel experiences are always in demand, with Aurora offer Small Ship experiences and big adventures.
What is your most memorable Aurora travel moment to date?
Entering the freezing waters in Antarctica and participating in the Polar Plunge. Very refreshing!
What is the one thing that people don’t know about Aurora?
Aurora Expeditions is starting its new Antarctica voyages from December this year, travelling to Ross Sea & East Antarctica departing from Tasmania and New Zealand. How amazing to have the opportunity to travel to the Australian claimed Antarctica territory.
