Travel agency consortia have seen huge increases in river cruise bookings this year, but they say they need more marketing support from operators.
Travel Counsellors Head of Cruise Janet Whittingham said its river cruise bookings are up 49% year on year, while overall cruise bookings are up 29% and leisure sales are up 8%.
Advantage Director of Cruise Jonny Peat described river cruise as a ‘runaway train’, with bookings through its members up 47% year on year.
Barrhead Travel Managing Director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell said one of the reasons for the growth was a focus on the sector by agents. “We have been pushing it for three years,” she said.
The three were speaking during a business session at this week’s CLIA RiverView conference, where two-thirds of agents in attendance said they had seen a recent increase in river cruise bookings.
However, 18% of agents said at the start of the event that they were ‘not confident’ or ‘extremely unconfident’ about selling river cruises.
When asked what needed to change, Travel Village CEO Phil Nuttall, who also took part in the panel discussion, urged cruise lines to reconsider their marketing and focus more on the destinations visited by river cruises.
Some cruise lines still include adverts with ‘someone in a stairlift’, he joked.
“We need to talk more about the destinations we are visiting, the Champions League of destinations, such as Vienna and Salzburg,” said Phil.
Both Phil and Nicki said the lack of direct flights was also a barrier to selling river cruises in the north and Scotland. “Half the time you are going backwards to go forwards,” said Phil, while Nicki pointed out that most river cruises are booked less than six months in advance, making it harder to find seats.
Janet said there was still the perception that river cruising is for older clients ‘and a bit stale’. “We need to myth-bust as much as we can,” she added, suggesting agents use ChatGPT’s description of river cruises as ‘a holiday for people who want to navigate the rivers of the world’.
Converting ocean cruisers to river cruising is ‘very difficult,’ said Jonny. “It is more city-break customers who are moving to river cruises.”
Nicki said cruise lines could help agents by sharing their data on the type of customers booking. “We are not the experts, the cruise lines are, so sharing that data with us will help us,” she said.
Image shows, from left: Phil, Janet, Nicki and Jonny
