Scenic Group has introduced new early season departures on its European river program, catering for travellers wanting to explore the Continent in cooler weather. The Australian founded company has also added more Christmas departures in its extended season on the Main, Moselle, Rhine and Danube rivers.

The new capacity comes as demand for off-peak travel in Europe soars. New early season departures have been introduced in Portugal on the Douro by the Group.

“As Europe now tends to be experiencing quite a very warm July, August, we’ve seen the shift from seven or eight years ago, when that was the peak period, to shoulder periods now being the peak season,” says Anthony Laver, Scenic Group GM Sales & Marketing APAC.

“We’re now seeing an elongation of the whole season,” Laver told LATTE in Hong Kong last week at Luxury Travel Collections’ Global Owner Managers Harbour Soirée.

The shift is already seeing what has traditionally been the ‘peak summer season’ becoming a new shoulder season, and appealing to different markets.

“We’re seeing a younger cohert coming onboard, as mature travellers don’t want to go in July and August when it is too hot,” he said – carefully noting that he isn’t intending to stereotype any particular demographic.

“A different audience is saying, that’s actually when I want to go.”

“We have this dichotomy of people saying that’s a great time and they can get great deals, but if you want to travel in May, June or the beginning of July, we’ve noticed that the cost of flights have gone up because there is more demand.”

Laver said that in the past, the Group needed to run special promotions and pricing to assist with filling its ships in the shoulder season. And while that activity is still relevant, with earlybird and super earlybird offers to kick off each new season, the extent of the yield management has changed year to year, adjusting to customer demand and shifting trends.

“Our primary objective still remains. To sell all the capacity,” Laver emphasised.

Scenic’s low season for European river cruising remains in January and Februrary, however that too “will change depending on what we put together as product offerings and the season starting earlier,” he suggested.

Scenic Group, which owns and operates rivers ships for both Scenic and Emerald Cruises brands, will add further new metal in Europe in the coming years.

Emerald Astra will join the Emerald Cruises fleet of eight ‘Star-Ships’ in Europe in early May next year. The 180-guest ship will inherit design hallmarks from the brand’s superyachts, featuring enhanced interiors with a sleek and contemporary design. Those tweaks were carried out across the rest of the Emerald river fleet in Europe during the 2025 season.

“We’re on a big growth capacity,” Laver said, revealing to LATTE that further ships, “probably two or three more” will also be announced in 2026.

While unable to confirm specifically which brand and ships the new vessels were destined for, Laver said “we want to make sure that our core product, which we are well-known for river, is also growing in tandem with our ocean product.”

On the ocean, Scenic Ikon is the latest addition confirmed in the superyacht space for the ultra-luxury Scenic brand, joining Scenic Eclipse I and Scenic Eclipse II in the Scenic Discovery Yacht fleet. Meanwhile, Emerald Cruises has two superyachts in service, Emerald Azzurra (build in 2022) and Emerald Sakara (2023), with Emerald Kaia launching next year. Two further superyachts, Emerald Raiya and Emerald Xara will further bolster the Emerald Cruises superyacht fleet to five by 2027.

Notably, Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours operates 12 of its ‘Space-Ships’ in Europe – Scenic Sapphire (built in 2008), Scenic Diamond (2009),Scenic Ruby (2009), Scenic Pearl (2011), Scenic Crystal (2012), Scenic Jewel (2013), Scenic Jade (2014), Scenic Gem (2014), Scenic Jasper (2015), Scenic Opal (2016), Scenic Azure (2016), and Scenic Amber, the most recent addition which also launched in 2016.

Meaning, Scenic is well overdue for new metal in its European ‘Space-Ship’ fleet, so perhaps a next-generation ‘Space Ship’ design is in the pipeline?