Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
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Harry Francis
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AmaWaterways, a luxury river cruise line that operates across the rivers of Europe, Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Portugal forayed into the Indian market last year in August primarily attracting the honeymooning segment. Elaborating on the travel segments in India, Harry Francis, general manager of Western and Southern region, AmaWaterways stated, “Generally we get senior citizens and now we are getting a lot of honeymooning couple as they find river cruising to be a luxury. We have not done wedding on our cruises yet, but we are looking forward to this opportunity. Our ships have the perfect capacity for the MICE segment but the only difficulty we face is that the MICE segment requires three nights or four nights which we cannot accommodate. In addition, we are looking at tier II and tier III cities as they have money and are willing to spend.”
Commenting on the emerging concept of river cruising in India, Francis stated, “River cursing is still a novelty in India. People have not heard of river cruising and the cruises that they have heard of are Oceania Cruises and Star Cruises because they are the ones who have two nights and three nights which normally river cruises do not have. All the river cruises are for a minimum of seven nights.”
Speaking on the USP of his river cruise and the facilities offered, Francis stated, “The USP of our river cruise is that all 75 to 80 rooms in our cruises are outfacing. The cuisine on our ship is exotic and we serve complimentary wine and beer for lunch and dinner along with champagne for breakfast. Shore excursion are all inclusive with a new city being shown everyday. We have internet and WI-FI access, 40 bicycles on board and guided tours. We also offer theme cruises like wine cruises where wine-tasting sessions are held, and tulip cruises from end of March to end of May. One of the important thing about river cruises is that one does not experience sea sickness and till date a river cruise has never sunk because they are flat bottom boats in four feet water.”
Since its entry into the Indian market, AmaWaterways has undertaken various promotional strategies like advertising in travel magazines and sending mailers to 30,000 agencies every week. “Though it hasn’t been a big splash for us, we have managed to bring about awareness in India. In future we are expecting this segment to grow,” concluded Francis.
