New company to market Amadeus river cruises in the US

Amras Cruises Worldwide, a river cruise company that launched in the U.S. this week, will sell Luftner Cruises’ Amadeus fleet of river cruise vessels to the North American market.

Rudi Joham, senior vice president of Austrian shipping company Luftner Cruises, also now serves as president and managing director of the new Amras Cruises Worldwide.

Bret Gordon, formerly COO of Vantage Deluxe World Travel (a direct-to-consumer tour and river cruise company) is CEO of Amras Cruises Worldwide. Gordon left Vantage Travel in 2012.

Amras is offering agents an introductory 20% commission rate for bookings completed through the summer, after which it will offer between 14% and 16%, based on productivity.

The two first itineraries are a “2014 Christmas Markets on the Rhine” cruise and a “2014 Christmas Markets on the Danube.”

Amras said it will offer more cruises throughout Europe in 2015, with 16 itineraries on Luftner’s newer Amadeus river ships.

Luftner has 11 vessels in Europe, ranging from the 142-passenger Danubia that launched in 2007 to the 180-passenger Amadeus Silver, which launched last year.

Amras’ operations are based in Austria, and the sales office is based in Boston.

“The Amras philosophy is to include as much as possible into the cruise and land price,” Joham said. “No need to think about gratuities, or which shore excursion to buy, or whether or not to have that afternoon Viennese coffee. It’s all included.”

Luftner Cruises has already entered the U.S. market through various charter partnerships, including with Connections by AK and Keytours. But this is the first time the Austrian company’s river cruise product will be directly sold to the North American market.