Riviera Travel reported incredible year-over-year growth last year. To better understand that growth, as well as the company’s current U.S. presence, we sat down for a chat with Stuart Milan, president of North America for Riviera Travel, and Matt Luscombe, the company’s newly appointed group CEO.
Luscombe, who joined Riviera in January, comes from the hotel world, having held high-level positions at Cycas Hospitality and InterContinental Hotels Group. Milan has worked in the travel industry in various roles, including travel editorial at The Daily Mail and as general manager at an online travel agency. He first joined Riviera in December 2019.
Here’s what the duo wants travel advisors to know.
How will Riviera’s new executive leadership structure propel the brand into the future?
Matt Luscombe: There's two parts to that. One is that I'm quite new in the business, and the other is that we've been investing significantly in North America. We've gone from, I think, two people on the ground 18 months ago to almost 30 on the ground now. So, we've gone into a huge growth phase in terms of our focus on North America. And that's a big part of our growth strategy over the next five years.
Matt Luscombe is Riviera Travel's group CEO.
Credit: 2026 Riviera TravelHow does the North American market fit into the company’s overall strategy?
ML: Over the last couple of years, under Stuart's leadership, we've grown significantly in the U.S. [In] 2025, we doubled the number of guests from the U.S. we took, versus 2024. And in 2026, notwithstanding global uncertainty at the moment, we're looking to double again.
North American customers should be around 15% of our river cruise businesses this year, but [that’s] still only 1% or so of the [overall] U.S. market, because it's such a big market. So, we're really excited about where that journey could take us. We think we can have exponential growth for the next several years.
Stuart Milan: Our overall capacity is going to grow significantly from a river cruise perspective over the coming years as well. The U.S. market is the largest river cruise market there is globally, so for us to tap into that through what is currently a trade-first approach is just an obvious [plan] for the business.
Some of the propositions we're coming out with around solo [travel are] a huge boost for us. We think we've got a real point of differentiation on launching the first kind of solo-only ship next year. Outside of that, we also have solo departures — circa 50 just for solos. We're trying to really serve that market.
And if we look into the incentives that we're offering the trade and their customers with regards to the group proposition, that's huge. [We are offering] “sell seven, get one free” — it's probably one of the best group propositions in the North American market.
If you have a look at our customer satisfaction scores, we're at 4.7 on Trustpilot, which is widely known in North America. We’re the highest [rated] river cruise operator within that.
We are now the market leaders in the river cruise sector. [We are] bringing that expertise, that kind of customer experience and that execution on an all-inclusive, upper premium river cruise product to the North American market.
Stuart Milan, president of North America for Riviera Travel
Credit: 2026 Riviera TravelWhat does the start of the 2026 river cruise season look like so far?
SM: In terms of departures, we've just started [on] the Douro, and then our core season [brings] all of the main departures on all the European rivers.
Our load factors are strong. Obviously, there is a bit of uncertainty at the moment, but we're seeing a very low cancellation rate from both the North American and the U.K. markets. Load factors are strong throughout April. Everything's looking very promising so far.
What can you tell us about Riviera’s yacht product?
SM: Our yacht program is significantly smaller than our river cruise program. It focuses on the Croatian side of things. They're small boutique ships, circa 20 cabins, so only around about 40 passengers. It allows us to navigate the coves of Croatia in a really personal way. We don't do big ocean liners; it is all quite intimate.
The Croatian product that we have is something we probably don't focus on enough from a North America perspective, and it's probably something that we need to promote a little bit more. At the moment, admittedly, we're quite river cruise heavy in our promotion in North America.
How do Riviera’s river cruises and yacht sailings relate to the company’s shoreside tour offerings?
ML: Although river cruises are what we're focused on in the early years of our U.S. expansion, it's actually only about half of our business today. The bulk of the other half [is our] land tours, and that's actually our heritage. River cruises [are] something we've been doing for more than 20 years, but land tours we've been doing for more than 40 years.
Originally, [our land tours] were in tried-and-tested destinations in Western Europe, but now we offer tours much further afield — in Africa, in Asia, North America and so on. [For] the North American customer, by [booking] "grand tours,” you can add some time onto your European holiday by having a land tour before or after your river cruise with us.
What message do you have for North American travel advisors at this time?
SM: I think the message that we try and preach to travel advisors interacting with us at the moment is: explore our brand [and] utilize the tools that we've got online with regards to our learning programs. [Advisors] can learn a whole load of information regarding what our products are, what our product types are and what our ships look like.
[These resources] also give them an overall view of what river cruising is. I think it still needs a bit of demystifying within the North American travel advisor market.
There's a huge opportunity with Riviera. We're what I would class[ify] as the only kind of upper premium, all-inclusive river cruise product in North America. So, we are a great choice for the guest that wants everything included, and slightly higher end, without having to get to the ultra-luxury price point. We're a great value-for-money proposition.
We can offer flights, hotels, transfers, pre- and post-[cruise tours] as well, so we're kind of a one-stop shop for the travel advisor community. And we've got a great and growing regional sales director team who are always on hand to help that advisor with anything that they need, whether that's a group inquiry, help with marketing, collateral and so on. We've just hired someone on the West Coast to fulfill that need now. So, we've got a good spread of regional sales directors that the advisor community can reach out to.
Is there anything else on the horizon that you'd like to point out?
ML: Lots of things. The river cruise category is growing really fast, and it's sort of maturing as a sector. The reality is we've got so much that we can learn from other sectors, whether that's ocean cruise or the hotel industry, which is where my background is. So, we've got all sorts of exciting innovations in the pipeline.
We also have the opportunity to do bigger and better things for our guests. Right now, we're a well-kept secret, and we've got this opportunity to go out across the United States and shout about what we do through the travel agent community.
