Agents are selling more river cruise holidays but numbers are still very small, a Clia survey of more than 80 agents has shown.

Some 45% said they have sold ‘a lot more’ river cruises in the past three years but a majority (52%) said sales were less than 10% of the total number of holidays they sold.

Just under half said a lot more customers are asking for river cruises than three years ago but while 75% know where they want to sail, more than half do not know which company they want to travel with. Some 65% of agents said their river cruise clients are former ocean cruisers.

Agents did not fare well when asked to rate their own knowledge of river cruising. Some 45% admitted their understanding of the difference between river cruise companies was not good and half rated their knowledge of the experiences on the different rivers as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’.