Riviera Travel’s chief executive has said the brand will “not be complacent” in going after its “ambitious growth plans” for river cruise and long-haul touring and the trade will have “massive importance” in helping it achieve its targets.
Speaking on board Riviera Radiance in Budapest ahead of the flagship’s naming ceremony, chief executive officer Phil Hullah said there was “plenty of runway for growth” for its river cruise offering and “a huge opportunity” in long-haul touring.
Hullah outlined four main focus areas the company is eyeing for the future, which included consolidating the line’s UK market leader position, becoming a UK market leader for long-haul touring by 2030, growing its non-UK source markets and investing in “long-term and sustainable” trade partnerships.
He said: “There is no complacency at all about continuing to consolidate our UK market leadership position for river cruise, and that is about delivering on the fundamentals of brilliant experiences, innovating and increasingly giving people more choice and control as a new generation of customer comes in and wants to tailor more than in the past.”
Hullah said the company’s budget for passengers for next year would be almost 100,000, and the aim “loosely” was to grow that to 150,000 by 2030.
He told Travel Weekly that it would be “fantastic” for Riviera Travel to grow its share of the river cruise market in the UK by one or two percent each year as the market grows.
“It is not all about passenger growth but about doing it right and building a fantastic business, but nonetheless ambitious growth plans,” he said.
Director of UK and Ireland trade and partnerships Vicky Billing added she was targeting double-digit growth in UK passengers and revenue by next year, and that currently the trade made up 60 to 70% of the river cruise company’s sales from the UK.
For long-haul touring this proportion was lower, but both Hullah and Billing insisted there was “a huge opportunity” to bring in new customers who would then switch between river cruise and land.
Hullah revealed Riviera Travel was “very balanced” between river cruise and long-haul touring which was “a real asset”, with about half of customers switching between the two products who are “2.5% more valuable in the long-term”.
“Touring is the part of our business that brings in the youngest first-time booker, and then they’re most likely to switch to other categories as they go,” he said.
“It’s a great area and huge opportunity and we have an ambition, and we’re not complacent, to be a market leader in the UK by 2030 and I believe we can do it, as we have the skills and assets, and we’re investing very significantly behind it.”
He also highlighted Riviera Travel had “a unique chance” to offer combined itineraries uniting river cruise and touring in different destinations.
In addition, Hullah said the operator would “continue to invest in and grow” non-UK source markets to ensure long-term growth, with Ireland and North America as the main priorities.
He stressed that Riviera would “keep a close eye” on the mix of passengers on board its ships to make sure “we are very faithful to what we are”.
“We want to attract a Europhile American guest who wants to explore and mix with international or British guests,” he said. “There are definitely quotas there and we want to manage it carefully.”
On the importance of travel agents to this growth, chief operations officer Robin Shaw said: “The trade has a massive importance to Riviera.
“We understand the importance of partnership and we believe in delivering long term, sustainable relationships with our trade partners.
“We’re not in there for the quick win, we are in for the long term to grow agent business, which will grow our business.”
Looking at the river cruise sector, Hullah said the forecast for the UK was “very healthy with strong growth”.
He explained: “There is a lot of political turbulence with ups and downs, but in the next five years [the market research for the whole industry] is showing five to six percent volume growth, plus a few percent selling price growth on top of that.
“We have seen that and it feels to me there is a coming of age as people understand a bit more of what river cruising is or can be.”
He added he was “very optimistic” about the industry’s future, adding: “The UK ocean cruise market is still more than 10 times the size of the river cruise market, but it feels ocean has moved from mammoth big ships to smaller and more coastal ships and towards river, so there is an opportunity and plenty of runway for growth.”
