Co-owner Gregor Gerlach told TTG that although there were no plans to build new ships in the next two years, he hinted the line could base a new-build on the Douro river in the future.
Riverside acquired all five of Crystal Cruises ships between November 2022 and February 2023 and launched the first in April this year and its second in August. Riverside Debussy will launch in March. This week, the line confirmed it would charter two of its yet-to-launch ships – Riverside Bach and Riverside Mahler – to rival Uniworld.
When asked about new-builds, Gerlach – who also co-owns luxury hotel portfolio, Seaside Collection, with his sister – said: “Hopefully eventually we will [build more]. I wanted to start with two ships, but we bought five, and now we’re down to three. I don’t think that we’ll build any ships in the next two years.
“Once we’re up and running in about three years’ time, we’ll have a think about what we’re doing. All five ships are standard Rhine class, so they’re not built for the Douro. Maybe we’ll build a new one for the Douro? There are so many opportunities across many rivers.”
Gerlach stressed the line’s financial goal was to break even in the first two years and then go into profit after that. “I’ve learned that from the hotel business,” Gerlach continued. “First, you need to create awareness, and then the money comes later.”
He revealed “some” of Riverside’s clients were former Crystal Cruises ones. “It’s not so easy to get to them because we don’t have the Crystal database,” he added.
“There was only one Crystal database, but it was ocean and river combined. The price that Crystal was asking for was the same as the river ships that we bought.”
He also stressed that potential customers needed to realise that they didn’t need to “fly 20 hours somewhere to experience something new”.
“Riverside is a new product and in Europe,” he added. “We offer a mix of active excursions and traditional cultural excursions.
“A river cruise is such a great way of travelling. It really is a big mystery why it has not taken off in a big way, and so few people know about river cruise.”
