The popularity of river cruises looks set to grow considerably through 2015 with a number of regions experiencing significant increase in demand for shallow water holidays. Europe and China are amongst the fastest growing river cruise industries in the world.
This falls in line with research carried out by UK holiday company, Haven, who revealed a growing trend for shorter holidays amongst the British public. Short river cruises with a significant number of excursions support this growing trend for short, experience-rich holidays.
The two fastest growing destinations in Europe for river cruises are Passau, Germany and Lyon, France whilst further afield, China, Vietnam and Myanmar have enjoy a considerable increase in popularity.
This research has come from the Cruise Holidays Cruise Trends report, which measures the sales of more than 1,300 cruise-focussed travel agents.
Despite their growth in popularity, Passau and Lyon only just made it into the top ten river cruise destinations in Europe. See below for the full top ten.
| Rank | Destination | % of 2015 River Cruise Bookings | 2014 Rank |
| 1 | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | 41.2 | 1 |
| 2 | Budapest. Hungary | 36.6 | 2 |
| 3 | Basel, Switzerland | 17.3 | 4 |
| 4 | Paris, France | 15.9 | 3 |
| 5 | Prague, Czech Republic | 8.0 | 8 |
| = | Nuremburg, Germany | 8.0 | 5 |
| 7 | Avignon, France | 7.4 | 6 |
| 8 | Porto, Portugal | 6.3 | 9 |
| 9 | Passau, Germany | 4.6 | 14 |
| 10 | Lyon, France | 4.2 | 13 |
See below, the top five river cruise destinations outside of Europe
| Rank | Destination | % of 2015 River Cruise Bookings | 2014 Rank |
| 1 | Beijing, China | 2.35 | 2 |
| = | Shanghai, China | 2.35 | 3 |
| 3 | Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam | 1.6 | 1 |
| 4 | Mandalay, Myanmar | 1.5 | N/A |
| = | Pyay, Myanmar | 1.5 | N/A |
Image courtesy of Bert Kaufmann
