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asia river cruises
900-year-old temple of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap and, coming up in Ho Chi Minh City, I’m going to be crawling through underground tunnels the Viet Cong lived in during the Vietnam War. As for help sleeping? After all these adventures I’m off home for a rest!
Fam-tastic
Virtually unknown until a little over a decade ago, the Mekong is now the top-selling river in Asia and is set to grow even faster after being showcased to more than 120 agents during CLIA UK & Ireland’s Asia Cruise Forum in April. As well as learning about river cruising in Asia during conference sessions in Ho Chi Minh City, the agents were hosted on three- and four-night cruises on the Mekong, an experience which will no doubt push up sales for the river (already the third biggest-selling in the UK for AmaWaterways and achieving three times as many sales since last year for APT’s UK office). But there are numerous other rivers to explore across the region. “A river cruise in Asia takes you through a country and not just to it,” said AmaWaterways’ UK Managing Directo, Stuart Perl. “Agents should target clients who want adventure but are wary about going it alone.” In India, the up-and-coming Ganges pairs nicely with a tour of the Golden
Triangle (Delhi/Agra/Jaipur), while threeand four-night cruises on the Yangtze in China are a perfect accompaniment to longer tours of the country. Titan Travel’s 14-night Treasures of China combines a three-night cruise with Beijing, Chengdu and Xian to see the Great Wall, pandas and the Terracotta Wwarriors. Until the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, the Irrawaddy River was also going great guns. Bookings have dropped, but Pandaw’s Vice President Sales and Marketing, Marco Rosa, is confident this will be temporary. “Myanmar sales have been up and down over the past 20 years. It is a wonderful destination and will be back,” he said. Pandaw offers plenty of other rivers for agents to sell – adventurous clients will love cruising the Upper Mekong in Laos and China, the Red River in Northern Vietnam and the Lower Ganges in India, a new itinerary launching in December. Rosa added: “Asia river cruising is all about exploring off the ship.”
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“The Mekong is now the top-selling river in Asia and is set to grow even faster after being showcased to more than 120 agents during Clia UK & Ireland’s Asia Cruise Forum in April”
Shore things
Off to market: Asia’s colourful markets buzz with locals buying live chickens, fish and exotic fruits, and things you don’t want to think about, such as pigs snouts in China, deep-fried crickets in Cambodia and rats on sticks in Vietnam.
Clockwise from top left: The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata is a staple visit on a Lower Ganges cruise; a colourful cabin on Sanctuary Retreats’ Sanctuary Ananda; durian, a staple fruit on the Mekong; Indian spices
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5/29/18 11:51 AM