Why Paris is of concern to the river cruise industry, too

It just so happens that France has been on the rise in the river cruising world. The Seine River and cruises on the Rhone and Saone rivers in the south of France have been gaining popularity in recent years, and last year Bordeaux became a new river cruise region that lines have since jumped on with new capacity. 

So, in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in Paris earlier this month, river cruise lines also have a lot to potentially lose if travelers become nervous about upcoming sailings in France — or in the rest of Europe for that matter.

Michelle Baran

Having been on an AmaWaterways river cruise on the Rhine River in Strasbourg at the time of the attacks, I spoke with Ama’s executive vice president and co-owner Kristin Karst in their immediate aftermath.

The company had a river vessel sailing the Seine back towards Paris several days after the attacks and decided to disembark passengers in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a bit further up the Seine from Paris, given the uncertainty in the capital as events unfolded there. Karst noted that AmaWaterways offers a two-night post-river cruise program in Paris, and gave the guests the option to continue with their plans or fly home.

“We had one very large group [and] they wanted to continue and do the two nights in Paris,” said Karst.

AmaWaterways had two more Rhone cruises this month, on Nov. 19 and Nov. 26, and did have some cancellations on those cruises, for which the line offered a 100% future cruise credit. While the news is concerning, Karst noted that an agent had emailed the company several days after the attacks to open up a group booking request for a cruise in Bordeaux, which she found hopeful.

The Paris attacks come at the tail end of what was a challenging 2015 for travel in Europe between the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris at the start of the year, and the migrant crisis that remained in the media spotlight throughout the summer. River cruise lines had the added challenge of low water levels, a nagging problem in Europe since July.

After several years of boom times for the river cruise industry, there is now a large amount of inventory sailing through Europe, and a lot of hype and investment on the line. Like other sectors of the travel industry, the river cruise segment is likely watching closely and hoping this all blows over before the selling season gets under way after the start of the new year. Either way, they’re probably well aware that the Paris attacks will pose some challenges, however short or long-lived.