Riviera Travel is targeting 40% year-on-year revenue growth through agents in 2025, its UK trade boss has said.
Vicky Billing, UK and Ireland head of trade and partnerships, said: “In trade this year we have grown about 40% year on year on revenue. Next year I want to grow another 40%, which includes all bookings, all departure years.”
She added: “It will be different across different products, but we’re going in for big growth again. We cannot do that without the support of our trade partners.”
Billing said the targeted growth is part of a long-term plan to the end of 2027, incorporating a strategy which has involved increasing headcounts in trade support and marketing, plus new initiatives like the e-learning platform Explorer and its first trade awards, which she believes is the first from a river cruise and tour operator.
She added: “It is about having all your ducks in a row with the commercials, the training, the frontline incentives, the experience of the product from fam trips, the recognition from the awards piece, the support for when they call up, the after-booking support and the marketing support.
“This year has been a phenomenal year, and we expected to have a good year, but it’s passed all expectations, which is amazing.
“But a lot of this year was about putting all of these things in place to make sure we were set up for success for 2026 and beyond.”
Billing revealed passenger numbers so far this year were up 35% year on year and revenue was up 45% over the same period.
She said the river cruise and touring specialist had “really high-stretching targets” for 2024, which they have already surpassed.
“We superseded what we did for the whole year in August, and then we hit all of our stretch targets at the end of October for this whole year,” she explained.
Billing said river cruise sales through the trade were up 51% year on year, and solo departures up 66%.
She added that the trade had “knocked it out the park” with solo river cruises, so much so that it has led Riviera Travel to add seven more sailings.
Agent sales for discovery cruises, which are short three to four-night cruises, have also “outperformed direct in quite a big way” and were “something we will look to build on again”, Billing noted.
She highlighted itineraries on the Danube continue to be “number one for the trade” and there have been trends in long-haul tours as well, especially Japan, India, South Africa and New Zealand.
Billing said Riviera Travel would “focus a lot of our efforts” on long-haul bookings as it is not as well-known as the river cruising side of the business, and “a great opportunity” for agents to make commission.
There will be three long-haul fam trips running next year in Sri Lanka, South Africa and Canada, alongside multiple river cruise trips, including on its new ships MS Riviera Rose and MS Riviera Radiance.