IG RiverCruise, an organisation that represents 22 river cruise companies in Europe, has given green light to Federal German transport infrastructure plan that includes investment in developing inland waterways.
The Federal Minister of Transport, Alexander Dobrindt, last month presented the draft of the 2030 Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan. According to this, €264,5 billion of federal funds are planned to be invested in the German infrastructure - with seven billion euro intended for the expansion and newbuilding of inland waterways.
“The IG RiverCruise appreciates the Federal Government’s efforts to retain and extend the navigability of German waterways. This applies especially in view of the fact that the river cruise industry will further gain in importance in the next years,” the organisation said in a statement.
The results of a study called “Der Fluss-Kreuzfahrtmarkt 2015” (the River Cruise Market 2015) conducted by the IG RiverCruise and published in cooperation with the German Travel Association (DRV) verify the growing relevance of the river cruise industry.
“During the last three years the western European river cruise fleet rose by 22 % and 20 further newbuilds for those waterways are scheduled to be delivered this year. Out of those, the main waterways concentrate on Germany and its neighbouring states,” IG RiverCRuise said
“More than 75 % of the German river cruise passengers traveled the cruise destinations Rhine, Main, Danube and their tributary rivers emphasising the significance of the German inland waterways, especially for this type of tourism.” remarked Helge Grammerstorf, Managing Director of IG RiverCruise.
“Based on the rising demand for river cruises the cruise industry is going to generate many new jobs, both in the nautical and the hotel sector.” said Thomas Bogler, President of the IG RiverCruise. Hence, the needed personnel will be recruited in Europe as well as non-European countries, as the West European labour market itself won’t be able to supply sufficient qualified employees
