TUI UK: starting TUI River Cruises in 2020 with three river ships purchased from Swiss Company
c: TUI rendering
Tui will offer starting summer 2020 with three river ships, purchased from Werner Tours and Reisebüro Mittelthurgau, Switzerland, three 155-passenger vessels that will sail seven-night itineraries along the Danube, Rhine, Main and Moselle. The sailings will be adult-only.
The new division will be called Tui River Cruises, and the line’s debut programme will offer 19 itineraries which will go on sale on April 25. The lead-in price for a seven-night sailing is £1,099, in which tips and service charges will be included, as they are with ocean cruising sister brand Marella Cruises.
Marella Cruises managing director Chris Hackney adds the new river cruising business to his remit and becomes UK & Ireland cruise managing director.
He said the new river programme would be sold only in the UK market and hinted the group would add more ships to its three-vessel fleet.
“This is just the start for us,” he said. “In terms of how big we get it depends on [consumer] appetite at this stage – we have just launched. But there is an opportunity for us on the main European rivers going forward. At the moment we are concentrating on sailings from Amsterdam and we will probably go as far down as Serbia.”
Tui has bought the ships from operators Werner-Tours and Reisebüro Mittelthurgau Fluss, which will continue to operate the vessels until October, after which Tui River Cruises will take control.
The ships will then be refitted and renamed Tui Maya, Tui Isla and Tui Skyla – names chosen because of their close association with water and rivers, Hackney said.
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