Phil Hullah, CEO of Riviera Travel, has told delegates at the CLIA RiverView Conference in Amsterdam today (11 March) that he’s frustrated the industry hasn’t found a better way to sell river cruises

Hullah revealed that despite more work needing to be done to educate cruise customers on the river experience, trade business for Riviera Travel had risen by 50 per cent compared to this time last year.

“It’s a frustration we haven’t found a way to do a better job,” Hullah said. “Agents have to actively suggest it to their clients.

“The people in this room have a massive job to get to the chase and to say [to their clients] ‘you know what, you might not have thought of it but this is a fantastic way to see an area’. River cruising itself is not that well understood.”

He continued: “There are still some myths to dispel, we need to be proactive and take the initiative and suggest it to people. We need to get those benefits across because I genuinely don’t think people know quite what [they are] in many cases.”

‘The more agents we can get on board the better,’ says Riviera chief

The UK river cruise line, which will launch two new ships in March and April next year, plans to organise 100 fam trips throughout 2024 to help develop agent’s knowledge of the sector.

“We try very hard to make ourselves easy to do business with,” Hullah continued. “We now have a dedicated sales support team in the Burton head office, we have seven key account managers on the road continuously in UK and Ireland and we’re offering 100 agent places on fam trips this year.

“At the end of the day, to sell to guests you need to drink the cool aid a bit, so the more trade we can get on board to experience it the better.”

Hullah also argued there’s more breadth to river cruising than people realise. “There are higher-end offerings and more entry-price offerings,” he explained. “There are operators who fall into both those categories and I think that’s a healthy thing. What’s difficult is when everyone is in the middle trying to do the same thing.”