Former Deilmann River and Ocean Cruises UK boss Stuart Perl has re-emerged with a new venture aiming to capitalise on the growing expanding river cruise sector.
Primarily focussed on group and charter business, Perl River Cruises offers 13 ships, including eight ex-Deilmann vessels, of the 30-strong German owned operator Nicko Tours.
The ships cruise on a variety of rivers including the Douro, Rhine and tributaries, Rhone and Saône, Seine, Elbe, Danube, Volga and Dnepr (Russia/Ukraine), Nile and Yangtze.
His company is also marketing three Mekong River Cruises vessels operating on the upper Mekong, through Laos and Thailand and a new Far Horizon Tours’ eco-ship on northern India’s Brahmaputra River.
Perl said: “During my time at Peter Deilmann, we were able to grow the UK’s group and charter market for river cruising by working closely with tour operators and travel agents to help them develop their own unique group departure programmes and capitalise on the opportunity of offering their clients something a little bit different.
“With many operators now selling their own brands of river cruises in the UK, agents and operators who are not as familiar as they would like to be with the sector but who would want to take advantage of the growth opportunity in river cruising, are crying out for guidance and assistance.”
The new company has been established to offer a personal level of service and expertise to the travel trade to consult, advise, source, negotiate and contract group and charter space on their behalf.
“We believe our operation is unique within the sector and will provide a great opportunity for tour operators and travel agents to package great products and earn healthy margins in a sector which is far less competitive than the ocean cruise marketplace,” added Perl.