TOURS AND RIVER CRUISE

"If you are confused and frustrated, then you are following the situation,” said Europe Tourism Association CEO Tom Jenkins in May.

He was referencing the state of Europe border openings and closings a few weeks after Europe announced in April it would be relaxing requirements for vaccinated travelers wishing to visit the continent.

If tour operators reacted by making any announcements at all about plans to restart Europe itineraries, most said only that they would resume tours over the coming months.

And some, like giants the Travel Corporation and Globus, said that they would accept only vaccinated travelers when trips relaunched on land and rivers.

U.S. riverboat companies American Queen Voyages and American Cruise Lines began sailing in March, though even domestic launches were not without uncertainties, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

In June, river cruises in Europe officially commenced with the sailing of the S.S. La Venezia, the refurbished former River Countess, by Uniworld Boutique River Cruises. It was followed the next week with the christening of newbuild S.S. Sao Gabriel on the Douro River.

The sector was still to see some ups and downs before year’s end, but surprisingly, the record flooding in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland in July had relatively little impact on the river cruise companies. That was partly because many lines had not yet resumed operations, but even those that did, such as Uniworld, reported that sailings were operating normally.

More impactful were the cancellations of the Christmas market cruises, which came as a result of late-year lockdowns in Austria and Germany.

For the most part, tour operators again turned to domestic products in 2021, whose departures could, by and large, be relied upon.

The heightened focus on the Black traveler experience and heritage gained steam when the National Blacks in Travel and Tourism Collaborative and the Cultural Heritage Alliance for Tourism, a Black-owned tour operator based in Miami, launched a national road trip to develop more Black culture- and heritage-focused products.

M&A activity reflected both the cash flow issues operators face and the opportunities investors envision. The Hornblower Group, parent of American Queen Voyages, went on a buying spree, acquiring day-tour operators including Walks, Shore Excursions of America and U.K.-based Cruising Excursions, as well as picking up the troubled ShoreTrips operation.

Small-group tour operator G Adventures received an investment from Certares in February, and its rival, Intrepid Travel, sold a minority stake to the French investment company Genairgy the following month.

Lindblad Expeditions, whose core business has been in expedition cruising, expanded its adventure travel offerings by acquiring a majority stake in tour operator Classic Journeys and acquiring operators DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co. and Off the Beaten Path.

And in the wholesale space, Expedia sold Classic Vacations to Najafi Companies.

To end on the sky’s-the-limit nature of touring, space tourism finally made the leap to reality in 2021 that ended decades of speculations about “when?” after Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s Space X blasted noncommercial travelers into space.