river cruis R
Avalon Waterways hosts key trade partners on a three-night Danube cruise to showcase its product and debate the outlook for the river cruise sector. Lucy Huxley and Stu Parish report
iver cruise operators and agents discussed prospects for the sector during a sailing from Budapest
to Vienna on board Avalon View. While hailing the industry’s strong revival and its higher price point compared with ocean cruising, they also highlighted the need to give agents the tools, training and experience to sell river cruise.
Giles Hawke, Avalon: “During the pandemic, river cruising was fortunate to resume before ocean cruising. Clia convinced the UK government that we were a different product to ocean cruise and we dropped our prices considerably to attract people to try it. Prices were at a level where you almost couldn’t afford not to go! “We had our best-ever year in
2022, so the offer was worth doing. People experienced river cruise for the first time and saw the value they were getting, and many rebooked for 2023. “Ocean is taking priority,
especially in agencies that still have a reduced workforce, but river cruise sales are coming back. The marketing is picking up and agents are seeing the opportunity – just look at the number of agents who went to Clia’s RiverView Conference in March. At least 10 agents who attended it have contacted our call centre to make bookings since. We expect to be back to 2019 levels in 2023, which was a good year for the UK business.”
Janet Parton, Avalon: “Our average selling price was £2,800 in 2018, but it’s up to £3,700 per passenger, so although volumes are down, the average selling price is offsetting the numbers. And our repeat rates in the UK are more than 60%. It’s a great sector for agents to focus on as the value is great and customers tend to book another again once they’ve tried it.”
Hawke: “The river cruise sector is a bit like ocean cruising was 20 years ago. We think people know about river
cruising, but there are so many new entrants into the market. These people need to understand why the price point versus ocean is higher – because absolutely everything is included: drinks, excursions, gratuities and everything – which means agents earn commission on all facets of the trip.”
John Sullivan, Advantage Travel Partnership: “We’ve reached the point where members are saying they’re getting a lot more interest in river cruising as a holiday choice. “River cruise is up more than
35% versus 2022 [in revenue], and is outperforming ocean. A lot of that has been price-driven, which has resulted in members selling up the ship, increasing the average selling price. “We now have more than 300
active individual members signed up to Latitude [Advantage’s cruise community], an increase of over 200% versus pre-pandemic. A key focus for Latitude is to ensure members have all the tools and knowledge they
need to be river cruise experts. We’re working closely with our river cruise partners and have some exciting opportunities coming soon. “We used to call this group Cruise
Champions, but it alienated some members and some customers, so we called it Latitude and just get members to focus on the experiences. It’s about changing people’s perceptions and it’s working well.”
Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, Barrhead Travel: “We’ve had a really good run on river cruise; we’re 152% up on revenue and 102% on passengers compared with last year. We sent 10 staff to Clia’s river conference, plus we put some product training and a dedicated product head in place to really champion river cruise and look after messaging and marketing. They ensure river cruising gets a good share of voice in the organisation. “It’s the marketing investment
from the river cruise lines where we have the gaps. We’ve had more investment this year than last, but it’s
Left: Giles Hawke and Janet Parton
14 25 MAY 2023
travelweekly.co.uk
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