On The Deck: Soren Langelund

It is finally time for our fourth and final contributor. After the likes of Jo Rzymowska, James Cole and Nathan Philpot have graced these fine virtual pages, there is evidently an increasingly important area we are forgetting: river cruising. The sector has seen massive growth in recent years, helped by imaginative itineraries and more and more impressive vessels. Who better to talk about river and small ship cruising then than the COO and founder of eWaterways, Soren Langelund? 

The company, which specialises in the waterways of Europe and further abroad, has capitalised on the growing niche and developed partnerships with many of the small ship operators who previously didn’t have the marketing budget to push themselves out to a UK passenger base. The length and breadth of the company is quite staggering. Anyway, that’s enough for us, let’s hand it over to the man himself…

Keep calm and cruise on….

After what some experts have called the worst Central European floods in centuries – it just goes to show that people quickly forget painful episodes. Insurance industry specialists have now stated that they expect insurance losses to fall way short of the last big floods which hit the region in 2002. While some areas did experience higher waters, investment over the previous ten years has meant that flood defences in most locations worked better than 11 years ago, but in the aftermath, the travel and tourism industry is now counting the cost. River cruise lines are still dealing with a number of cancelled cruises and hundreds of re-bookings and refunds they have had to issue in the wake of the incident.

The cruise lines have also started to take stock of the millions of losses they have incurred as a result of the flooding. This brings about a number of questions as to how the various companies have managed the force majeure situation, some – mainly cruise lines who also are involved with high sea cruising and are used to ‘hurricane’ interference – may be covered by a Business Interruption Insurance, others have had to take it on the chin, but in general clients have been offered refunds as well as reductions on a future ‘replacement’ cruise. However even within companies the treatment of customers has varied according to their originating market and their cruise ticket conditions, and that is now starting to raise questions on internet chat rooms. So operator BEWARE – simply referring your clients back to their insurance companies, won’t cut the mustard!

A recent sensationalist headline in ‘The Times’ read: “Disaster scene awaits river cruise passengers! European river cruises promise a fairy-tale landscape of medieval towns and castles — and as the worst floods in more than 500 years recede, passengers booked on cruises along the rivers Rhine, Danube and Elbe in the coming weeks could find themselves in the midst of a mosquito-infested disaster scene”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Although heavy rain in early June caused the Rhine, the Danube and the Elbe rivers to break their banks in various places, forcing authorities to halt shipping, a fortnight later, the German Tourism Authority has been able to release a statement that “the towns and communities affected by the floods are returning to normal. The tourism infrastructure is largely restored.” It is back to business as usual as the flood waters have receded. Through the flood-hit cities and towns along the Danube, Elbe, Main and Rhine rivers, transport and other essential infrastructures are once again running as normal. Towns such as Passau, which was considerably affected, have now been given the all-clear; the historic centre of Regensburg, Germany’s largest UNESCO World Heritage Site, was spared by the floods and although the area on the river bank directly around the visitor centre was at risk, it is now out of danger.

There are however still a couple of exceptions. Disruptions to cruises on the Danube River are still somewhat affected as the repairs on the Altenwörth lock between Melk and Vienna, Austria are not yet completed. One lock chamber has been operating since last Friday, but the right lock chamber is still shut, which means some delay to the cruise traffic. Once the lock repair has been completed, the Danube River cruise market will come back stronger than ever. Space is already tight for departures this autumn.

In other places ‘The Steigers’ – the landing pontoons – have been swept away or destroyed which may mean that river cruise ships may for a while have to, in a larger degree than usual, tie up next to other ships. However the various cities and their harbour masters are diligently working to restore the situation.

Senior VP of Viking Cruises Richard Marnell is cited for saying that “For the industry the biggest challenge will now be to re-accommodate passengers on a similar cruise this sailing season”

Here at eWaterways we work with several cruise lines, and through careful client management we have succeeded with just one full sailing cancellation and a couple of modified programmes, and we are still well positioned to welcome those of your clients whose holiday might have been affected but still who want to cruise on the European rivers this season.