NEWS t news and have chance to visit five vessels in the Hungarian capital. Ella Sagar reports from Budapest


Celebrity vows to bring new customers to the river sector


C Lucia Rowe and Stuart Milan solo traveller demand


20% of passengers – a jump from less than 10% pre-pandemic. She said regular solo supplements


of 50% had been waived for the first year of the line’s Flavours of Burgundy itinerary and a 20% solo supplement had been extended on other departures. Karst also reported increased


demand, particularly from younger passengers, for private and smaller- group excursions than the typical 10-20 passengers on daily tours. She said “a lot could be done” to provide such tours, but cost would depend on local resources and destination.


elebrity Cruises insists it will bring new customers to river cruising and not just poach other lines’ passengers. The line’s vice-president of international


Giles Hawke said research showed 51% of Celebrity customers had either taken a river cruise or intended to take one, meaning its database of a million-plus annual cruisers was a “ready market”. Celebrity announced in January that it planned to enter


the river sector and had placed an order for 10 ships to sail in Europe from 2027. Hawke stressed “a lot of research and work” had gone


into the move and it was not “an overnight decision”, adding: ““It’s a combination of [targeting] those taking river cruises and those who intend to take river cruises. “I think there’s room for all of us and we’re entering the


river cruise market to grow that segment rather than move passengers around within it.” He said significant marketing activity to support


the launch of sales this summer would also attract new customers and confirmed Celebrity’s sales team would cover both ocean and river sales, rather than having separate divisions. “We will be doing things differently, but we will be


respecting the sector,” he added. Celebrity will operate in the same premium cruise


space in the river sector as it does at sea, Hawke said, with ship design taking inspiration from its Edge Class ocean


ships. He hailed plans for a “transformative upper deck” but declined to reveal further details. Other operators at the conference welcomed Celebrity


Cruises’ entry into the sector. A-Rosa president Lucia Rowe said: “I have to say, with absolute honesty, that when the announcement came I was delighted. “These guys [Celebrity Cruises] have a completely


different tone of voice and will shout about river. There’s nothing not to like about that. There’s every reason to love it.” Addressing concerns about overcrowding on rivers


such as the Rhine and the Danube, Rowe stressed the sector was “by far not there yet” in terms of overtourism and that adding more ships was “not a problem”. Hawke added: “The Danube is 2,800km long and the


Rhine is 1,200km long, so a couple more 200 metre ships really is not going to block up the rivers.”


Agents’ personal holiday preferences ‘a barrier’ to sales


River cruises are not “a holiday of choice” for most agents and this is a barrier to the industry’s growth, a top agency chief told delegates. Barrhead Travel managing


director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell said river cruising was “still not top of mind” for agents or consumers. She said: “The feedback from


our people is that it wasn’t a holiday of choice for them, and I think that’s been one of the barriers for this sector. And we are still finding that from a consumer point of view,


travelweekly.co.uk


it’s not top of mind either, so the reliance on the agents having the knowledge is still there.” According to a pre-arrival


Nicki Tempest- Mitchell


survey of delegates by Clia, 45% of attendees had never been on a river ship before, 25% were new to selling river cruise and 14% had been selling it for less than a year. Tempest-Mitchell said Barrhead


Travel had grown its river sales by more than 70% year on year by putting “a strong focus” on training and electing river cruise champions in the business. She urged members of the trade to take up opportunities from cruise lines and Clia to boost their knowledge.


13 MARCH 2025 11


Giles Hawke


PICTURES: Steve Dunlop


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