Riviera Travel

Riviera Travel (rivieratravel.co.uk) is a UK-based escorted tour and cruise operator specializing in premium packaged holidays (land tours, river cruises, and select ocean/yacht voyages).

Riviera's reputation for high quality, value for money and exceptional service also attracts new customers in addition to the significant level of repeat travelers.

Brand positioning

Riviera Travel is rated as an "upper-premium mass market" brand, not ultra-luxury, as it doesn't provide butler service or all-inclusive premium drink packages (by default).

Until 2025, the brand was officially referred to as "Riviera River Cruises".

In January (2025), Riviera River Cruises officially transitioned to Riviera Travel. The rebranding was to align the company's river shipping operations with its broader travel experiences and to strengthen its presence in the USA market. Additionally, to enhance convenience for travel agents and their clients, the company introduced bundled packages inclusive of flights, land transfers, river cruises, and pre- and post-cruise hotels. The booking process made it easier for travel advisors to organize seamless journeys, and all packages are now fully commissionable.

Since 2025, the company has issued travel agents' commissions two weeks before cruise departure dates, with the earlier compensation reinforcing Riviera Travel's commitment to its trade partners.

The company is currently transitioning from charter-based cruise buyer to fleet-controlling operator, but it is not yet a shipowner like Viking River Cruises, AmaWaterways or Uniworld.

Riviera Travel is one of the leading cruise and tour providers focusing on the elderly market. It currently offers escorted land tours and cruises to 50+ countries, serving annually 118,000+ customers.

In the pre-COVID 2019, Riviera Travel was ranked the UK's largest river cruise operator, attracting 73% more Australian bookings in comparison with 2017.

Company history

Founded in 1984, the company is headquartered in Burton upon Trent (Staffordshire, England, UK). Its core market is the UK and North American (Canada and the USA) outbound leisure travel.

Riviera Travel's original focus was European escorted coach tours. The company's current business model is an integrated tour agency and river cruise brand.

In the 1980s-2000s, the company developed as a bus touring specialist, with a strong focus on the 55+ demographic. Riviera Travel's expansion into the cruise industry occurred in the 2000s-2015 and is on a charter-based fleet. Riviera's ships are largely operated via third-party ownership plus charter contracts, mainly with Scylla AG.

In the period 2016-2020, the company chartered several modern boats, eventually making a transition toward Riviera-branded newbuild vessels, especially since 2021.

Riviera's current plans are for an expansion beyond Europe, with an Asian market entry, with Riviera Alba (deployed on the Mekong River) debuting in September 2027.

As of 2028 (planned), Riviera Travel's fleet encompasses 16 riverboats (Europe and Asia). As of 2026, the fleet has 13 vessels.

Ownership, leadership, business structure

Riviera Travel's leadership team is led by Phil Hullah (Group CEO, touring + cruise division) and Stuart Milan (President for North America /USA + Canada). Marilyn Conroy is Riviera's Executive VP of Marketing and Sales.

Riviera Travel is a private equity-backed travel group, not a publicly listed company. The majority of the investment backing is by Silverfleet Capital (since 2017).

Riviera Travel offers fully packaged holidays (cruises and tours) as opposed to "cruise-only products". Typically included in the river cruise fares are the shipboard dining (breakfast, lunch, dinner), beverages (wine/beer by the glass with dinner/on most sailings), daily shipboard enrichment programming (live entertainment, lectures), shore excursions (guided tours in all port towns/cities), airport transfers (on package bookings), and Wi-Fi service.

Riviera Travel's core deployment regions are the rivers Rhine/Moselle/Main (itineraries between homeports Amsterdam, Basel, Cologne), Danube (roundtrips from Budapest, Passau, Vienna), Portugal's Douro (Oporto), France's Rhone and Seine (Lyon, Avignon, Paris roundtrips to Normandy).

Riviera Travel's signature European itineraries are mainly 7-nights and themed as "Blue Danube Cruise (Budapest–Vienna–Bratislava–Melk), "Rhine Cruise" (Amsterdam–Basel), "Douro Discovery (Oporto– Vega de Terron/Salamanca), "Seine Explorer" (roundtrip Paris), and "Grand European Tour" (14-nights B2B/back-to-back voyage that combines two itineraries - Rhine and Danube).

The scheduled debut of Riviera Travel's Southeast Asian/Mekong operations is scheduled for September 2027 with the ship Riviera Alba. The standard 15-day "Vietnam, Cambodia and Mekong River Cruise" itinerary is between homeports Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon (Vietnam) and Siem Reap (Cambodia). The Mekong itineraries visit popular destinations, including My Tho (ship embarkation after transferring from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City), Cai Be and Sa Dec (Vietnam), An Giang and Dong Thap (Vietnam), Phnom Penh (Cambodia, overnight), Wat Roka Kaong and Opopel Village (Cambodia), Kampong Cham and Siem Reap (Cambodia, ship debarkation).

Riviera Travel's current fleet includes the following ships listed by deployment/river:

(DOURO River, Portugal) Douro Elegance, Douro Splendour, Porto Mirante (2024), Riviera Rose (2025)

(RHINA–DANUBE–MAIN–MOSELLE Rivers, Belgian and Dutch Waterways) Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer (2021), George Eliot (solo cruise ship), Oscar Wilde, Riviera Radiance (2025), Riviera Rhapsody (2028), Riviera Reflection (2027), Riviera Resplendence (2026), William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth

(SEINE River, France) Jane Austen

(RHONE and SAONE Rivers, France) Lord Byron, Thomas Hardy

(MEKONG River, Asia) RV La Marguerite, Riviera Alba (2027)