AmaWaterways co-owner Gary Murphy sat down with Karryon at the recent Luxury Travel Collection showcase to talk about its first year in the Australian market, new ships and the changing face of the luxury traveller.
Murphy’s passion for river cruise is palpable. You can see why, despite announcing his retirement a few years ago, he’s found it hard to stay away from the job.
“After three months I started going into the office again, and now here we are in Australia a year after launching an office here,” he says with a laugh.
AmaWaterways opened its Sydney-based office in May 2024, after APT, which was chartering its ships “decided to go their own way”.
“It was a wonderful partnership and when it came to an end it gave us the opportunity to enter the Australian and New Zealand market.”
And he says 12 months in they’ve already exceeded all targets.
“We’ve broken targets and added more reservations. To be successful, you have to be successful here, and the people at Flight Centre Travel Group have opened up opportunities for us and we’re getting a great return on investment.”
He says talking to key luxury travel advisors at the event has been invaluable.
“Ninety per cent of our business comes from the advisor because they know what our client is… if you want a white-gloved meal, that’s not it, we’re more resort casual… we’d rather invest in exceptional experiences and that changes depending where you are in the world.
“We have a cruise manager who travels with the clients too, and they like the continuity of one person with them all the time… the agents appreciate that differentiation.”
New ships on the horizon
Murphy says last year they had river ships on all rivers in Europe, on the Mekong and Nile, and now they’re looking to Colombia.
“We’ll have two boats in Colombia starting in April with AmaMagdalena and that’s already sold out until the end of May. Australians and New Zealanders are early adapters and adventurous and they love finding new places, so these ships have hit the mark.”
A second ship, AmaMelodia will launch in June and Murphy says they’ll have 10 ships launched in the next few years, with more on the Rhine.
An evolving luxury traveller
Murphy says the new luxury traveller wants choice, wants to travel in small groups and doesn’t want to be identified as a tourist.
“So when we’re in a port we offer up to six different programs in one port. Travellers don’t want to be walking around with someone with a flag in large groups.
“They want to fit in like a local, so we have bikes on ships so you have two guides, one at the front and one at the rear, and you can break off into even smaller groups.”
He say other guests, who don’t want to be so active, can just walk ashore and enjoy the local community.
“I’m personally an early riser and I love waking up and walking ashore and finding a bakery and I sit down with a newspaper and watch the town wake up… and you really get to know a place by doing that.”
The new demographic
Murphy says they’re seeing a lot of people in their mid-50s choosing river cruising.
“There are a lot of women who are travelling in groups on girls’ trips, and there are more multi-gens too. So you have the grandparents, the parents in their mid-50s and their kids who are late teens, so staterooms are getting bigger because people want larger rooms and interconnecting rooms.”
And he says the next generation are valuing experiences over material things so this is opening up a new market for river cruising.
“Grandparents are leaving money to the younger generations who are using it for experiences and they don’t care about the finest linens, they want to travel and have a very personal experience. People go on a river cruise for Amsterdam, but come back loving towns they have never heard of.”
As for that retirement plan?
“I don’t really have an official job title, but yes, I’m back working. I can’t help myself. I love what we do too much.”
For more information, visit AmaWaterways.
