AmaWaterways president outlines ambition to be ‘front of mind’ for UK trade and passengers

AmaWaterways’ new president has outlined her ambitions to do more to make the luxury operator “front of mind” for UK agents and passengers considering river cruising.

Catherine Powell, who joined the luxury river cruise line from Airbnb in February this year, revealed UK passengers were up 25% year on year with next year’s figure already up 46%.

Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, Powell called the UK market “incredibly important” and “core” to AmaWaterways, adding: “River cruise is exploding and I want AmaWaterways to be front of mind for anyone who’s thinking about river cruising.”

She said: “I can see the opportunity in the UK, because we’re not front of mind. There is the acknowledgement and the recognition, but there’s more that we can do.

“I want two things. Firstly, I would love British guests to walk into a travel agency and say ’I want Ama’, and secondly, I want travel agents to say ‘You must go on Ama’ when a British guest walks in wanting a river cruise.”

Powell outlined her four priorities were for growth, brand, technology and international markets to reach this goal.

She said AmaWaterways was “very focused” on growing its fleet and destination offering and will have a 33-ship fleet by 2027, with an additional eight European ships will be coming by 2030.

Powell said the team was “in the process” of deciding the size and itineraries of the ships in the newest order, which will be announced next year.

She added the company is “absolutely exploring” what more could be done with its existing destinations and is looking “everywhere” for other opportunities to launch on a new river.

Powell also said she wants to expand AmaWaterways’ penetration of the trade in the UK, which had grown 23% this year in terms of the number of travel agents it works with.

In terms of brand, she plans to “elevate and invest in how we communicate” and identify consumer segments like solos, multi-generational and interest groups they can do more to cater for.

On technology, she plans to leverage data to build more tools for their internal teams and agents, in addition to AI to improve the customer experience both at the time of booking and on their cruises.

Powell wants to “leverage” the work done in the UK by Jamie Loizou, who has been promoted to managing director for international markets, to continue to invest in the UK and building international markets such as Australia, Latin America and Asia.

Powell added plans for the wave period shared soon, but she was also looking to “find other moments” outside of the busy period to help differentiate their message.

“The first quarter of this year [according to the data] was incredibly important, but the previous three quarters were as important for us,” she said. “Wave is an important moment, but you could find other moments.”