In April, the Great American Steamboat Co. will relaunch the 436-passenger American Queen on the Mississippi River, a cruise market that has been dormant since Majestic America Line ceased operations under Ambassadors International at the end of 2008. CEO Jeff Krida recently spoke with senior editor Michelle Baran about why Mississippi River cruising is poised for a vibrant comeback.
Q: What happened in the lead-up to the demise of Majestic America Line?
A: It's easy to dissect what went wrong. It was probably harder to keep that from happening when people were in the middle of it. In the 1990s, the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen just focused on delivering a very high degree of service, not a lot of price discounting ... a really special, authentic, American historical vacation experience. And when it became very successful in the '90s and the company did a public stock offering, it provided a lot of money for the owners back then to go off on other ventures. They took their eye off the ball with the special uniqueness of the Delta Queen, the Mississippi Queen and then in 1995, when it was launched, the American Queen product.
And then later, when Majestic was the third owner, bought it after Delaware North failed with it, they just were inexperienced with the product, and they mixed it with a group of other products: Windstar Cruises, things that were not related. They thought of themselves as consumer-direct marketing geniuses and they turned their back on travel agent partnerships, and I think that hurt them big time.
Q: Why is the timing right to bring back the Mississippi River cruise market?
A: There are a couple of reasons. One of them is very simple: because it was available. Those of us who were involved with this business and product before, I think knew and understood where the potential was, where the pent-up demand was, not only from the profile of the customers who used to love to ride the boats and paid full fare to do so, but also from the travel agents who missed not having the product to sell. There were a lot of earnings left on the table for travel agents who used to make a good living selling this product in the 1990s.
Q: How will the market likely grow and evolve in the coming months and years?
A: I think there are a number of positive indicators about the future demand for heartland America river cruising. One of them is the explosive growth for more than a decade that Americans have been responding to and making happen in European river cruising. The old bus tour, "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," has been replaced by river cruising in a big way, and Americans love it. For the last three years they haven't been able to do it other than on the Columbia River in the United States. So I think there's a big introduction of well-traveled Americans to river cruising that translates very well into coming back home and learning about your own country's river cruising.
Q: What are your capacity options if you do decide to grow your business?
A: There are other rivers in America that river cruising can expand on. There are even still some other vessels that can be brought back into service, and there are newbuilds that can be done. So between the Columbia River, the Hudson River, more capacity on the Mississippi River ... I mean, we're delighted with the fact that American Cruise Lines, for example, is building a small replica of a paddlewheel boat and is advertising the Mississippi River. The more competitors that launch vessels on America's rivers, and bring attention to those destinations, the better.
For news on tour operations, wholesalers and river cruising, follow Michelle Baran on Twitter @mbtravelweekly.