Despite the rapid growth of cruising, the meetings and events industry continues to be land-focused, with most planners opting to book hotels, resorts or conference centers. According to HelmsBriscoe, which specializes in meeting procurement and site selection, planners are just beginning to discover cruises, including river cruises, as viable alternatives for their events. With the right set of tools, a cruise, particularly a river cruise, can offer a customizable, productive and memorable group experience that can't be replicated on land.
These are some of the benefits of today's river cruises for meetings and incentives.
New ships cater to group events
The major limitation of river cruises for events has been the vessels themselves. Until recently, they were built for the consumer market and optimized for the passenger base, which skews older, with limited group function space, breakout options or wellness facilities. However, new ships are on the horizon that will feature purpose-built elements for the event buyer. Until then, the planner must be creative to make the best of what the ships currently offer.
Customization and flexibility are key
The smaller footprint and defined programming of a river-cruise ship — compared with the much larger oceangoing vessels — offers the unique advantage to move a meeting or incentive program to a variety of locations and to create a truly customized itinerary. Given the intimacy of a river cruise, they're also ideal for smaller executive retreats, and team-building exercises are easily executed either onboard or onshore. Parallel programming for spouses or guests is also highly achievable.
River cruises are more sustainable
Due to the inland locations river cruises visit, they can easily take groups to smaller, less-visited destinations. For incentive groups, this feeling of exclusivity is particularly appealing. Participants can have more meaningful interactions with locals. These experiences have a direct economic impact on the local community, and incentive winners appreciate that they're leaving a positive mark on the destination.
Matthew Shollar is the founder and chief visionary officer of Transcend Cruises. He oversees partnerships, ship design and fleet development efforts for the global charter-only river-cruise company.
