These were just some of the questions put to river cruise bosses on stage in front of a record 600 delegates at the Clia RiverView conference in Amsterdam on Monday (9 March).

With war in the Middle East raging, some operators suggested that despite the devastating circumstances, the river sector had an enticing opportunity to attract new customers who have had to put their Middle East holiday plans on hold.

However, they stressed several barriers to booking remained despite more river capacity coming into the market. TTG's Harry Kemble rounds up the main takeaways from Clia RiverView.

Air allocation

Phil Nuttall, chief executive of Travel Village Group, which owns the rivercruising.co.uk brand, noted how one of the main barriers to more river cruise bookings is a lack of direct flights from the north of England and Scotland to departure ports in Europe.

Nuttall said the demographic that traditionally book river cruises often had concerns about how they would travel to European departure ports. “It’s harder to get to Europe if you’re from the north because half the time you’re going backwards to go forwards,” he explained.

Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, managing director of Barrhead Travel Group, agreed. “The biggest challenge is that river cruise lines don’t take air allocations because they say their bookings are coming in six months before travel which puts pressure on the air piece,” she said. “There’s less availability in other words. So, to fix the northern challenges, we need air allocations.”

‘Articulate the differences’

Janet Whittingham, head of cruise at Travel Counsellors, which had nearly 80 agents at the conference, said that while river cruising is a “wonderful, wonderful experience”, the sector’s marketers needed to “myth bust” more.

Tempest-Mitchell echoed Whittingham’s comments. “I can see what their differences are, but let’s just articulate it better to our agents,” she said.

Credit: Clia/ Steve Dunlop

Jonny Peat, director of cruise at the Advantage Travel Partnership, said river lines should focus more on the experiences they offer rather than their ships to reduce the risk of confusing agents.

“Nobody would be filling their ships and trending as brilliantly as they all are if their food was sub-standard,” he said. “I think it’s pretty clear every ship we’ve been on in the past couple of days offers exceptional food and beverages.

“For more, it’s about tapping into those touring communities and those who like to go off the beaten track a bit.”

Are big ocean ships a ‘turn-off’?

Nuttall believes customers want a “more personal experience” particularly while ocean cruise ships are getting increasingly larger. He cited former P&O Cruises ship Oriana, which measured 260 metres and carried up to 1,970 passengers.

“This is where you can start talking to your customers who remember the days of [P&O Cruises ship] Oriana about getting on a river ship,” said Nuttall.

“That is where it will start to turn because people don’t want to start queuing any more to get off these big ships. They’re looking for something different. I think there’s a real window of opportunity in the next 18 months.”

River’s sustainability credentials?

When Nuttall suggested river ships were better for the environment than ocean-going vessels, he was asked on stage if customers care about that, forcing him to admit Travel Village customers rarely ask questions about a cruise operator’s sustainability credentials.

However, he stressed: “Sustainability is an issue – 100%. If you go past Vienna and you go further east, there isn’t the infrastructure available elsewhere. So, we’re not there yet but we will be.”

Converting Middle East demand

Travel agent panellists widely agreed European river cruise operators could step in and save customers whose holidays to the Middle East have been impacted by the war in the Middle East.

Whittingham said: “Customers want to go away. They’re pretty hard skinned our customers and they’ve handled a lot over the last few years. We’ve had conversations about when we can get these customers [with Middle East bookings]

“Where can we get couples, solo travellers and families who want to enjoy a holiday? I do think Europe is going to have a really good opportunity to do that.”

Peat added: “A lot of these European rivers are literally on our doorstep and I don’t think they’re being considered or offered.”

Nile cruising

Avalon Waterways president Pam Hoffee explained the line's decision to pull Nile cruises amid the conflict in the Middle East, saying: "It was the right decision for us. The situation happened very quickly and we had some guests who were stranded in Jordan because flights were cancelled. They've gotten home now which is the most important thing.

"We've have had it happen before with Egypt when we've had guests there and something has happened and it becomes very challenging to get people home. We decided that it was not worth the risk."

Meanwhile, AmaWaterways chief executive Catherine Powell said it was "great" to learn no British passengers had cancelled their Nile bookings with Ama since the start the conflict started late last month.

On AmaWaterways' position around Nile departures, she said: "We have trip extensions in Dubai and Jordan and we had guests there. The first priority was getting them out. We had to bus them to Oman and fly them out. We've closed those extensions during the month of March. We work very closely with our partners on the ground in Egypt and they assured it was safe to travel there. 

"We had guests in Cairo and guests about to travel. We reached out to every single guest or their travel advisor to ask 'what do you want to do?' We still have charter planes on standby. Everyone in Egypt wanted to stay and everyone about to fly wanted to fly. The few cancellations that we had have had have rebooked for 2027."

But she added: "If you're flying from Asia or Australia, a lot of flights fly via the Middle East. That's where we're seeing softness."

Tempest-Mitchell said Barrhead Travel had not seen any cancellations for Nile river cruising, but added there had been "a slowdown in future bookings".

Paul Melinis, APT Luxury River Cruises & Tours UK and Europe managing director, remained upbeat about the company's return to Egypt after more than 10 years away. Travelmarvel's new 62-cabin vessel, Sirius, is set to start operating in the country in September.

He confirmed there had only been two booking cancellations so far with the guests deciding to rebook for the Douro instead. "We're all hoping that by that time people will be able to travel, but right now there's no disruption in Egypt." 

‘Highest number of commissions’

Powell revealed UK sales grew by 25% year-on-year in 2025. “We gave out the highest number of commissions [to UK agents] ever last year,” she said. “The UK market is very important to us. They love the Danube; they love our European rivers.”

Powell added Ama is launching its City Escapes product on the Seine and the Rhine rivers in the coming months. “Seasons are getting elongated and there are now more sailings in February and November in the shoulder seasons.

“We’ve taken our product and curated something that we’ve called City Escapes. It’s all about how you experience Paris, Rouen or Amsterdam in the quiet time of the year. We curated it when it’s cheaper to get to those cities.”

Colombia will ‘take another year to settle’

Powell confirmed AmaWaterways’ sailings on the Magdalena River in Colombia were going “really well”.

The ultra-luxury line currently operates two ships – AmaMagdalena and AmaMelodia – on the river and has created all the infrastructure required to offer sailings on the waterway.  

Credit: AmaWaterways

“It’s been a seven-year passion project,” said Powell. “We’ve delivered everything including the infrastructure, the training of the crew and the cruise directors.

“We’ve gone into villages that did not have tourism there. We’ve launched two ships from zero. It will take another year to really settle.”

Line’s ‘one ship every year’ plan

Avalon's Hoffee told delegates that because the 15-ship line is “family-owned” it can grow at a different rate to other companies. It is set to welcome a new vessel later this year. “We’re all for risk,” she said. “We feel the right pace [of growth] is one ship a year. Why grow at the pace that everyone else grows?”

She warned other brands in the sector about having too much capacity, saying in 2014/15 “we were in that position”. “It creates a race to the bottom on pricing,” she explained.

Hoffee also highlighted how sourcing captains to drive river boats can limit how many new ships launch. “There’s not an abundance of captains,” she continued. “It’s a very specific training.”

2028 fam trip plans

Giles Hawke, Celebrity Cruises’ vice-president international, ruled out hosting agents on its new fleet of river ships next year, but hinted at welcoming the trade onboard vessels in 2028.

Credit: Clia/ Steve Dunlop

“We can’t do anything next year as our ships are full,” he said. “But we will in 2028, we’ll definitely get some agents onboard.”

However, he confirmed the line is looking at hosting agents around the Clia RiverView conference in 2027 despite having said there were no available cabins left next year.