Overcapacity and falling prices are fuelling a discounting war that threatens to drag river cruising down to the worst excesses of the ocean cruise market, according to leading travel agents.
In an agent roundtable during its annual trade-focused Diamond Awards on the Rhine, the cruise specialists claimed that a glut of new river cruise vessels and a slump in US business has prompted some river lines to dump unsold capacity on to the market at rock-bottom prices.
“The market has been trashed,” said Blue Water Holidays managing director Juliet Archer.
“I have to sell double the amount of river cruises now than I did last year to make the same money.”
She said this had prompted Blue Water to double its marketing team simply to maintain sales levels, adding: “We are having to run faster in a more difficult market.”
And she predicted this could take its toll, leading to casualties in the market, especially as many agents had been encouraged to move into selling river when the market was stronger.
Jessica Vincent, luxury and river cruise product manager for Cruise.co.uk, claimed this was the first year she had seen river cruise companies take their lead from the ocean cruise market by focusing on price rather than product.
“This year there is so much more competition and so many deals, with prices dipping below £1,000 for a week,” she said.
