The Interview
Chris Townson, Uniworld
The river cruise line’s UK managing director
talks Venice, Brexit, market differentiation and his plans for the trade with Harry Kemble
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t is telling of how confident Chris Townson is about Uniworld’s product that he remains undeterred
when citing Venice to talk up the luxury river line. Less than a fortnight before
our interview, the 2,150-berth MSC Opera collided with Uniworld’s 130-passenger River Countess at the San Basilio Terminal in the city. Te crash, which led to six River Countess sailings being cancelled, saw concerns about cruise ships operating in Venice resurface as thousands of Venetians lined the streets calling for large vessels to be banned. “We saw what happened with the
protests,” Townson says. “Tis [issue] has been high on the agenda for a while, with the ocean cruise lines working with Venetian authorities to decide on the best way to deal with the bigger ships. “If you look at our river cruises,
we’re doing Venice and its islands in a hugely immersive way. We probably have the most immersive offering out
20 JUNE 2019
there. We work with local suppliers and all the food and beverage is local. If you look at the things we do, they’re off the scale.” Next year, Uniworld is introducing
a docking station at Venetian day-trip destination Burano Island, which Townson says is an example of how Uniworld goes the extra mile for the destination and customers. “Tere was nothing there
beforehand,” he says. “We are taking our guests there for the evening to show a different side of Venice.”
Differentiation Away from Venice, Townson has identified a persistent problem for agents. He says agents 15 years ago had a “real struggle” trying to differentiate between ocean lines. Now, he says, agents selling river cruise are faced with the same issue. “Ocean [cruising] has matured,”
Townson says. “Most trade channels understand the segmentation in the ocean cruise industry. People understand Silversea and Regent Seven Seas are ultra-luxury and
further down the luxury line there is Oceania. “River is still in its infancy – it is
still very early days. We believe we are in the ultra-luxury sector of river. “Te good news is there is a
product for everybody.” While he says lines are guilty of
“overmarketing”, Townson calls for robust training programmes to help agents differentiate. “River cruise lines’ USPs are very
similar,” he adds. “Everyone has the ‘best staff’, or is a ‘multi-award winner’, so how do agents or consumers understand the differences? Tis is about robust training plans and communicating clearly and effectively through fam trips.”
2020 plans Next year, Uniworld will welcome three new ships to its fleet. River Countess is being stripped “back to the steel” as part of an unofficial fleet “elevation” project. River Countess will emerge from a
dry dock in March as La Venezia and offer eight-day cruises through Venice and its islands, including Burano. River Royale has undergone
a $14 million rebuild and been renamed Bon Voyage. It is now sailing in the Bordeaux-Medoc region. “We could have rebuilt Bon
Voyage in France, but we did it in Germany,” says Townson. “It cost us one million dollars to take the ship up to Germany and back to Bordeaux. It
We have spent the equivalent [on rebuilding River Royale] of what many operators spend on a new ship. We are not trying to be the biggest; we are trying to be the best
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