Making a run at the cost-conscious consumer

Posted on 18 March, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

At a time when other river cruise lines are scaling back on growth, French river cruise company CroisiEurope this week announced it will launch seven new river cruise vessels this year and next.

Granted not all seven are full-size European river cruise ships — two are 22-passenger canal barges, and one is launching on the Mekong — but still, seven ships is worth noting, especially for a company many of us here in the U.S. didn’t know much, if anything, about as recently as a couple years ago.

By the time these seven vessels are launched, CroisiEurope will have 46 company-owned vessels in its fleet. In 2014, the company carried some 200,000 cruise passengers (compared to the approximately 250,000 passengers carried by Viking River Cruises), although only about 8,000 to 9,000 of those hailed from the U.S. But CroisiEurope is growing its U.S customer base, and quickly.

So, what’s the deal with Croisi? Well, the company saw an opening at the lower end of the river cruise market and it is clearly going after it. For a long time, river cruising has grappled with a reputation of being a bit pricey. Travel agents would lament that while they wanted to sell more river cruises, especially since the very inclusive vacation style generally offers lofty commissions, not all of their clients could afford it.

Therein lies the opportunity for CroisiEurope, which after 40 years of building river cruise ships in Europe, is banking on its home-turf shipbuilding ties and a more pared down version of river cruising to bring lower prices to market. And while CroisiEurope’s older vessels do not compete with the sleek newbuilds being churned out by U.S.-facing river cruise lines such as Viking, AmaWaterways, Avalon, Uniworld and all the rest, the company has upped its ship design game and its newest batch of river cruise ships is focused on chicer interiors and enhanced amenities.

Another line going after this segment with arguably even chicer ships is Emerald Waterways, the lower-priced sister brand to Scenic. And it is having a good deal of success too. Having only launched in 2014, Emerald is on pace to have seven river cruise ships in Europe by 2017 (its fifth vessel, the 182-passenger Emerald Belle, was slated to launch this spring, but has been set back by a fire in the shipyard).

As river cruising piques more travelers’ interests, and the travel style opens up to a wider audience, there is clearly going to be more demand for and thus greater opportunity to provide a more accessible river cruising experience.

A good sign when another river line heads to the open seas?

Posted on 7 February, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

Last month, Scenic announced that it will enter the ocean cruise market with the launch of the 228-passenger luxury mega yacht Scenic Eclipse in 2018, effectively making Scenic the second river cruise line after Viking to head to the open seas.

The fact that Viking and Scenic have invested in some serious ocean-going hardware can be viewed through many different lenses.

On the one hand, it may indicate some nice profits coming out of their river cruise endeavors, allowing for expansion. We can’t know for sure – these are private companies and investments (and capital) can come from many different sources – but there’s a case to be made that they wouldn’t be able to shell out for blue water product if their river cruise business one wasn’t holding up nicely. It may also be that these companies are looking for ways to bring a loyal customer base to destinations that they can’t via inland waterways.

But there’s also a case to be made that they might be heading into the ocean market to diversify their portfolios and reduce the risk of being fully invested in rivers, which has become a very bloated market over the last few years.

If you look at investment in the opposite direction, from ocean to river, the fact that Crystal Cruises is bankrolling a new fleet of river cruise ships could be seen as an indicator that the river cruise industry does show signs of continued promise into the near, and perhaps longer-term. But it also means a further inflation of the river bubble.

In the river cruise industry, there are some signs of headwinds in 2016; some increased discounting taking place, some post-Paris attacks challenges, and I’ve already written about a relative slowdown in shipbuilding momentum.

And it remains to be seen whether these recent river-to-ocean crossover moves are signs of further headwinds or rather indicate that the river cruising industry still has plenty of wind in its sails.

A challenging start to a promising year

Posted on 11 January, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

By Michelle Baran
As European river cruise vessels file into winter dry-dock this week, closing up the 2015 season, there is bound to be some nervousness for an industry waiting to see how the 2016 season will play out once it gets underway in the spring.

The dormant winter season offers an opportunity to spruce up older vessels and make final arrangements for the launch of new ones, investments that will hopefully pay off throughout the season. And this coming year has a lot to offer; Both Crystal Cruises and Adventures by Disney (through a partnership with AmaWaterways) will introduce new river cruise products in Europe, and all the major river cruise lines are adding new vessels to their fleets.

There’s a lot to look forward to, and yet 2015 ended with a bit of a question mark in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks in terms of how much the attacks will impact travel in Europe (and consequently river cruising) this year. Surely the hope is that a quiet couple months – fingers crossed – prior to the start of the 2016 season will help keep pre-existing bookings on the books and reinvigorate the flow of new ones to get 2016 back on track to being as robust as it promised before the attacks.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of exciting developments elsewhere in the world to distract from the situation in Europe. Uniworld is starting its first cruises on India’s Ganges River this month, a new product the company has said has exceeded its expectations in terms of how successful the bookings have been.

And back in the US, it will be interesting to see if we hear anything more from Viking about its plans to launch modern-style Mississippi River vessels in 2017 and from the Delta Queen Steamboat Company about whether the fabled 89-year-old Delta Queen will receive the Congressional exemption it needs to sail again.

Indeed, despite some uncertainty as we start off the year, 2016 still promises to be an exciting and interesting one in river cruising, both in terms of the announcements we already know about and in terms of the surprises we’re always counting on the industry to provide us.