Walter Littlejohn, the line’s vice-president and managing director, said he would not be exploring such an idea as he believed “any product which has ever been so narrowly tailored has never done well”.

When asked if operating a sub brand in the vein of luxury rival Uniworld’s U by Uniworld, could be a future opportunity, he explained: “When you’re dealing with [selling] a ship you are already speaking to a small segment of the population [who cruise] and narrowing it even further I think it’s a recipe for failure and I think this particular brand [U by Uniworld] has experienced that.”

Littlejohn said that “beyond having a product specific to younger people” the line was “taking a harder look” at its deployment and making sailings more suitable to young travellers’ preferences.

He explained how Crystal’s 2019 river programme now featured no 14-night cruises, with the line instead choosing to offer seven-night and 10-night itineraries as well as 16-night sailings onboard Crystal Mahler.

Littlejohn added how, following in the mould of its 2020 ocean programme, Crystal’s river itineraries would soon also be able to be combined with “consecutive voyages without repeating any ports”.

“So we’re appealing to an audience which has a limited amount of time and also another that has a lot of time so it is win, win,” he said.

“It has worked with our ocean sailings so we will do the same with river when we release 2020 itineraries.”