The launch of Celebrity River Cruises is a strategic move by Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) to keep customers within its expansive ecosystem while elevating the river cruise experience, according to President and CEO Jason Liberty.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Liberty explained that the its entry into the river cruise sector was part of a broader strategy to enhance the brand’s offerings. This move builds on RCG’s commitment to provide travellers with a “lifetime of vacations”.
“What we’ve been seeing for some time is a growing trend with our guests that they’re looking for additional vacations, not a substitute for going on a cruise, but additional vacations,” he said. “And one of the things we’ve seen is a rise on the river side.”
By expanding into the river cruise market, RCG is offering its customers a seamless experience, allowing them to take advantage of a unified loyalty program and enjoy strong reciprocity across the group’s various brands.
“We’re enhancing the flywheel, and we’re investing in the flywheel, so we can get more reps out of our guests,” Liberty said. “We had to listen to what our guests are looking to do, and we have to be focused on how to keep our customers in our ecosystem and one of the ways of doing that is expanding the offering.”
Subscribe to LATTE Cruise’s free eNewsletter to keep up to date with everything in the luxury cruise space.So far, Celebrity has an initial order of 10 ships, with the first two slated to debut in 2027, and four in both 2028 and 2029. The vessels will be constructed by TeamCo, based in the Netherlands. While the program will initially operate in Europe, Liberty made it clear that the vision is to expand globally.
“We have a massive global footprint, we go to 1,000 different destinations, we source from all over the world, and we think there’s a great opportunity to match those guests also on the river side,” he said.
“River is similar, certainly not exactly the same as an ocean cruise and we think we can elevate that vacation experience significantly not just on the ship itself but also on land.”
The launch of Celebrity River Cruises comes as RCG reported record bookings and elevated pricing, with a trend towards booking further in advance. Liberty highlighted growing demand for personalised experiences and the increasing use of technology among customers, both trends which the company is leveraging.
“We’re still a very significant discount to a land-based vacation,” he stressed. “For us, we focus less on what’s happening with our cruise competitors, we’re trying to take a larger share of the US$2 trillion marketplace for leisure travel.”
