Catherine Powell took the helm as CEO at AmaWaterways in July, while Rudi Schreiner and Kristin Karst, co-founders and longtime faces of the river line, took on new roles -- Schreiner as board chair, Karst as chief brand ambassador. Powell, who came to AmaWaterways after stints at Airbnb and Disney, spoke with managing editor Rebecca Tobin during Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas.
Catherine Powell
Q: What's your first priority?
A: The first priority is ensuring that the transition is smooth. Especially when you're coming to a business and a brand that is family-owned, very strong and very beloved, I need to ensure that continues. I see myself as kind of the caretaker of the brand. And looking for: What does the future look like ... how am I going to innovate and evolve the brand while protecting the legacy. I'm spending time looking at our tech, our website, our data, the tools that our teams have. And then ... international. As they start to hear about [river cruising] in Latin America and in Asia and elsewhere in Europe, I want AmaWaterways to be at the forefront of people's choices.
Q: Back to the transition: Rudi and Kristin are so personally involved with the brand, is that intimidating when you come in and you're not them?
A: Yes. I would be crazy not to be mindful! As I said to Rudi, they are big shoes to fill. And he told me, size 12, so very big shoes to fill. And I told him, well, my feet are smaller, but my heels are higher. Rudi is chairman; he's not gone far. I'm going to work closely with him as we identify the new destinations; he has pioneered river cruising. Kristin is still around. I need to make sure that I am complementary to what they have done and will continue to do.
Q: Ama has pioneered river cruising in Colombia, and it took a while to get there. What's been the reaction?
A: Colombia has been an incredible success. We have trailblazed in terms of creating itineraries, building docks, hiring local people to build the ships. We are training and investing in the community, curating experiences for our guests to have with local communities. And I think bringing our guests into these areas, having that culture of immersion, which is incredibly transformative for our guests, it can also economically be transformative for the communities that we visit.
Q: One of the things that's come up in the industry was a plan in Amsterdam to limit river cruising. Does that concern you?
A: We work very closely with the Amsterdam authorities, and we also have a very strong relationship with Zaandam, which is another port very close to Amsterdam. We dock in Amsterdam, we also dock in Zaandam. On the expectations around ecofriendly fuels and engines, we're focused on that. But as we look at our itineraries and all the docks and ports that we have, there are many, many places to dock. We are obviously aware, but I wouldn't say we're concerned.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: I wouldn't say I have concerns that keep me up. I have an incredible team that manages everything so well across all the operations. You want to make sure that if disruptions happen, our guests feel it in a minimal way. You have high and low water; anyone has that. How they make the decisions and how they ensure that they can minimize disruption -- perhaps move guests from one ship to another or to change the itinerary seamlessly so that one excursion replaces another and guests don't even notice.
Q: One more question: How is demand?
A: Incredible. Very strong.