| Karst: Aussies valuable to river cruising

AUSTRALIANS are some of the most valuable river cruise guests in the world, AmaWaterways Chief Brand Ambassador and co-owner Kristin Karst has told CW.

The AmaWaterways kingpin, in Australia for last week’s Cruise360 (CW 29 Aug), said Australians represent high-value receipts when travelling with the cruise line, making the country one of its essential markets.

“[Australians] want to travel not just for one week, but they take a lot of back-to-back cruises, or there’s back-to-back [with] our pre- or post-land component,” Karst explained to CW.

“Then they maybe do something on their own, and come back on another river cruise with us.

“These longer vacations, we don’t have so much from the other guests, but we do from Australia, and that is wonderful to see,” she added.

AmaWaterways recently celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of its local office (CW 10 Mar), following the end of its relationship with Australian river line APT (CW 07 Mar 2024).

Karst said AmaWaterways has learned much about Aussie guests since its founding in 2002, and believes it is expanding into markets such as Australia at a fruitful time for river cruising. MS

Pictured are Managing Director Steve Richards, Karst, and Head of Marketing Angela Smith.