Russia will not feature as an APT river cruise destination for a second straight year in 2016 due to the ongoing political instability, the touring group’s managing director Chris Hall has said.
Speaking exclusively to Cruise Weekly, Hall said that despite a so-called ceasefire recently being declared, the situation was still too unstable to resume touring.
“It’s something we talk about a lot as the 2016 program starts to be released and it’s a difficult one. There’s ongoing issues in Russia and there’s a lot of uncertainty.”
Last year, APT followed the lead of its river cruise partner line AmaWaterways by suspending operations in the region for the 2015 season (CW 06 Nov).
Construction of a dedicated ship for the region – MS Anastasia – was also put on hold.
“We certainly don’t want to be investing into an area that doesn’t allow us to be there long-term or may not even allow us to start because you just don’t know what is going to happen.”
“Of course we have our Golden Eagle Luxury Train in full operation but at this point we won’t have a [cruising] program in 2016 for Russia,” Hall added.
“But I say at this point that anything can change and it’s really subject to the conditions and the availability of ships.”
