AmaWaterways forward volumes 5% up year on year

AmaWaterways’ co-founders have highlighted “a very bright future” for the line, with strong forward sales for 2025 and 2026.

Speaking at a meeting for trade partners, Rudi Schreiner and Kristin Karst hailed a “phenomenal” 2024 and pointed to strong occupancy and sales trends.

Schreiner said the UK market was doing "extremely well" and 2024 has been "phenomenal" compared to 2023 for the business overall.

Sold occupancy for 2025 sailings currently sits at around 61-62%, he added, which is roughly 5% ahead of the volumes sold this time last year for 2024.

Schreiner said the UK was the company’s third biggest market after the US and Canada, and the company had just opened an office in Sydney to tap into the Australia market.

The line will introduce new ships on the Rhine, Magdalena and Mekong rivers in the next two years, including another double-width ship modelled after the flagship AmaMagna (pictured) which will be called AmaRudi after its founder.

He said the plan was to “fine-tune” the new ship using learnings from AmaMagna, including replacing the cinema on the top deck with more al fresco dining options.

Karst hailed the contribution of the trade to the line’s sales success, adding: “We are immensely grateful. The trade is our extended sales team and marketing arm and those in the UK sell as well as in the US.”

She said that since the pandemic many people have preferred to be on smaller ships and on a river cruise because of personalisation and immersion opportunities.

She said there were “so many segments coming through”, and that “personalisation” on board was important for the line to maintain.

Karst highlighted growing trends in long-haul and longer length cruises, plus multigenerational family bookings since the pandemic.

“We have not even touched the bottom of those that want to do river cruises. Really the sky is the limit,” she said.

Karst added the co-founders planned to come back to the UK at least twice a year to build “partnerships into friendships” with the UK market.