A-Rosa river sailings now available as Atol packages

A-Rosa River Cruises has partnered with Aviate to offer Atol-protected packages to the trade. The move will allow UK agents to make bespoke package bookings through the line for the first time, on the its entire collection of European river cruises.

The partnership was created to expand the line’s reach in the UK market, and will see Aviate act as A-Rosa’s trade reservations department, handling all stages of the booking process, bonded under Aviate’s ATOL licence. A dedicated reservations number has also been set up for trade bookings. 

Lucia Rowe, A-Rosa’s managing director, said: “This is a big step forward for us and a milestone moment in our UK expansion plans. For several years, agents have been asking us to find a way for them to book fully Atol protected packages through us, for our entire river cruise portfolio. We have listened and I am delighted we now have a solution through Aviate, who are a trusted and well-respected name in the industry.”

The new partnership will complement the river cruise lines’ existing travel trade partner strategy. Until now, it has worked mainly with tour operator partners, offering group allocations on selected departures and itineraries that agents could book. Partners who wanted to dynamically package individual departures had to either book cruise-only or use their own Atol.

Rowe adds: “This is the obvious next step for us and it really is all about choice. Many agents have a preferred supplier they book our cruises through and this will continue to be an important channel for us. But for those agents who want the flexibility of being able to book packages through us across our entire portfolio of dates and itineraries, all with full Atol protection, this is the perfect, easy to sell solution.”

The line will launch the A-Rosa Sena in May, and upgrades are planned across the fleet in 2023.

The line has also added more than 120 options to its shore excursion programme for the 2022 season.