Riverside Luxury Cruises’ Susie Coughlin on luxury river cruising of the future

Susie Coughlin is a seasoned professional in the river cruising industry, recently appointed as the commercial sales and marketing representative for Australia and New Zealand at Riverside Luxury Cruises.

With a wealth of experience, she played a pivotal role in launching European river cruising, holding senior sales management positions for both APT and Travelmarvel brands.

What are the biggest luxury trends shaping the river cruise market right now?

I personally think our well-travelled Australians are looking for choice in river cruising. There is not a one size fits all approach which is why so many brands and standards of river cruising are embraced from this market, who do extremely well.

For the ‘true luxury’ segment and first-time apprehensive river cruisers who are after a luxury experience, a short taster cruise is a great start i.e. we start at 3 nights. which is rare in the river cruise space. Traditional luxury ocean cruisers can slot into this segment quite easily and can easily incorporate it as a portion of their overall European holiday experience.

For the lovers of luxury river cruising, who have most probably experienced the traditional 15 day AMS-BUD or v.v. are now looking for a shorter tour of approx. 7 days to regions and rivers not already traversed. The Rhine and the Danube are still the most popular rivers on the European Waterways.

Where are you seeing the biggest areas of growth?

We are a start-up so fortunately for us everywhere we traverse see’s growth. I know that our biggest growth market will be Australia and New Zealand as we are starting from a very low base, however with the right exposure to our amazing ships and services, agents will see that we fit a niche gap in the market that will suit their luxury clientele and they will support our brand and myself with future sales.

What does luxury mean to you?

When travelling where the need to pack and unpack as fewer times as possible is my absolute joy.

Luxury is a friendly face and great customer service and people who make me feel welcome from the get-go, i.e. seamless pre-booked transfers, hotels close to town, aesthetically pleasing décor, a decent size room (cabin), great food, a good sized well-lit bathroom, with up-market amenities, a walk in shower and a hair dryer – if they could just start putting hair straighteners in rooms I would be overjoyed – LOL! Immersing myself in the local towns where I can people watch in an outdoor café , drinking coffee, with shopping close by is the definition of luxury, to me.

What are the destinations to watch in 2025?

With all the hype around France, with the recent Rugby World Cup and the Paris Olympics, the French rivers seem to be popular with Australians now.

Many travellers have traversed the other more well-known rivers and now want a new experience whilst still enjoying their newfound love of river cruising.