Riviera Travel will be ‘top of our game’ amid rising competition

Riviera Travel’s chiefs have described new operators entering the market as “a positive” but stressed the competition will mean the company has to be “top of its game” to continue its double-digit growth.

In the past year, Celebrity Cruises, Trafalgar and National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions have announced plans for a combined total of 12 new-build ships and two chartered vessels on European rivers before 2030.

Speaking on board Riviera Radiance ahead of its naming ceremony, chief executive Phil Hullah told Travel Weekly: “Obviously it is a big development with bigger operators and cruise heritage businesses thinking about coming into river.

“I genuinely think it is a positive because one of the frustrations about river cruising is that it is quite hard to change people’s perceptions about what this is, as there is a stereotype that all of the ships are the same or old-fashioned, or it is very constrained on board.

“The approach Celebrity will take will make noise around the category, but at the same time, it is competition, so we are going to have to be on top of our game, but we are used to that.”

In addition, he said Riviera Travel must maintain its focus on its current core demographic of 60-to-65 year-olds, as well as ensuring the company “understands the next group coming in”.

“You cannot be the best at everything so we know we are not going to go for 40s and under or families,” he said.

“We know what we’re about and we’ve got to make sure we evolve our offer to be relevant for today’s 55-year-olds, who in 10 years’ time will be our customers. Looking at the next group coming in is a huge focus.”

Hullah said the business had gone from “strength to strength” in its post-Covid recovery, with “a record year by a long margin” in 2024, adding overall revenue for 2025 is due to be 20% ahead year on year.

He added: “2026 is building now and we are well into selling that which is looking to be really strong double-digit growth versus 2025.

“It is all going in the right direction which allows us to put all the firepower and investment in the business, the team and technology to take it forward.”

Vicky Billing, director of UK and Ireland trade and partnerships, said continuing to expand Riviera’s trade distribution, getting the most out of its “strong team on the road” and continuing to develop its e-learning trade platform and AI assistant were priorities for the coming 12 months.

She said: “We will always try and innovate and our job to make sure that we are absolutely top of our game all the time, so no one can touch us.

“I am a firm believer you cannot stand still and we have got to stay ahead of the pack which is why we have launched things like Riviera Explorer e-learning platform, the Vault incentive with instant rewards and Riva AI to give 24/7 support to agents.”

She revealed the Riviera Explorer platform would have a Riviera Rewards section added to it in the coming year, and there were already plans for second iteration of Riva AI, which first launched in November.

Riva AI 2 will take on agent feedback and questions asked of the assistant will shape “help us shape everything we do” as part of Riviera Travel’s mission to be “absolutely easy to do business with”, Billing added.  

Riviera Explorer now has 4,000 users and in two weeks Riva AI has gained 650 users and answered more than 2,000 questions from agents.

Looking ahead, she said: “We are expecting as a business to have our biggest and boldest trade peaks that we’ve ever had to continue on that success.”

In addition, the business will continue to host conferences such as Hays Travel River Cruise Conference and Advantage Latitude Conference on Radiance and Inteletravel River Conference on Riviera Rose, she said, as well as more fam trips for its long-haul touring product to help reach the goal of becoming UK market leader by 2030.