The big travel brands diving into Europe river cruising

Travel Weekly

19-06-2025

Clockwise from top right: Lisa Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Travel; host Rebecca Tobin and river cruise editor Brinley Hineman talk about the new developments in river cruising.
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Today is all about travel brands making an entry into Europe river cruising. We've been surprised this year by the number of established names moving in to the Rhine, Danube and beyond: Celebrity, Trafalgar and National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions among them.
With Lisa Fitzgerald, a river-cruise expert advisor and founder of Fitzgerald Travel, and river cruise editor Brinley Hineman, we're exploring why each of these brands is approaching river, and how they're doing it in different ways. We'll also look at the popularity of emerging destinations around the world, and numbers from Viking, the biggest river cruise line. We also talk about Brinley's trip on Riverside Luxury Cruises - this episode was recorded in mid-May, so that trip has already concluded, and we've included some of her reporting in the show notes.
This episode was edited for length and clarity.
Episode sponsor
This episode is sponsored by the Globus Family of Brands. https://www.globusandcosmos.com
At the end of this episode, stay on for a special, bonus discussion about the latest from the Globus Family of Brands between Camille Olivere, Globus' chief sales officer, and Mary Pat Sullivan, the executive vice president of marketing partnerships for Northstar Travel Group, Travel Weekly's parent company.
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Fitzgerald Travel