The New York Times.com online edition, entitled Arriving at the Temples of
Angkor Aboard a Luxurious River Cruise Vessel, appeared on November 7
while the International Herald Tribune print edition appeared the next day
under the headline Cruising the Rivers of Cambodia in Luxury While
Basking in Pool and Spa.
Simon Marks was thoroughly impressed by the MS AmaLotus, telling
Promotion in Motion "it is the most luxurious ship on the Mekong, that is for
sure" The first portion of the story, quoted below, reflects that and sets the
stage to explore AmaWaterways and the global river cruise industry.

Cruising the Rivers of Cambodia in Luxury While
Basking in Pool and Spa
Simon Marks
On November 8, AmaWaterways was featured in an article published by the
International Herald Tribune, the Global Edition of the New York Times.
Written by Simon Marks, Executive Editor at The Cambodia Daily and freelance reporter for the International Herald Tribune/New York Times, it
provides an interesting look at the booming river cruise industry in Cambodia
and Southeast Asia.
When he saw an Internet news release from AmaWaterways' Los Angeles PR
firm, generated through Expert Click's NewsReleaseWire service, about the
impending launch of AmaWaterways' second ship on the Mekong, the MS
AmaLotus, he saw an opportunity for a business story on a topic he had been
wanting to write about.
In early August, Simon Marks contacted Promotion in Motion about going
aboard the new ship during the dignitary filled inaugural cruise to gather
information for an article. On September 15, after a host of back and forth
communications, he found himself on the MS AmaLotus, while moored in
Phnom Penh, for a tour of the new ship and a chance to sit down with
AmaWaterways' Chairman and co-owner, Jimmy Murphy, President and coowner, Rudi Schreiner and Geoff McGeary, owner of the APT Group, an
Australian travel company and partner of AmaWaterways.
With tourism on the rise from river cruising, in Southeast Asia generally and
Cambodia specifically, the AmaLotus launch provided Marks an ideal chance
to delve into AmaWaterways' Mekong operations and the river cruise
industry around the world.

“PHNOM PENH — Gliding through
the water almost soundlessly, the ship
drifted toward a small landing stage
and quickly threw down the
gangplank. An elderly man in
swimming trunks lounged next to the
boat's swimming pool. Another sipped
from a glass of whiskey as he watched
the city approach from his private
balcony.
The cruise ship AmaLotus offers luxuries like spa treatments, a gym and a
swimming pool.
This was no ordinary vessel. Unlike the more traditional fishing boats and
ferries that ply the waterways of Southeast Asia, the AmaLotus, a cruise ship
that began operating in September, contains luxuries like spa treatments, a
gym and a swimming pool.
At 92 meters, or 302 feet, in length and capable of holding 124 passengers,
the AmaLotus is one of the latest cruise ships to start ferrying tourists
between Siem Reap in Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on the
Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers. “
After that Marks went into how river cruising had only recently come to the
Mekong after growing dramatically in Europe over the last ten years. He
quoted an official from CLIA, the Cruise Lines International Association,
who said that "the river cruise industry is growing fast worldwide as babyboomers in United States, Europe and Australia enters retirement and looks
for new travel experiences"

 After the Rhine-Main Canal in Southern Germany was completed in 1992,
linking the Rhine and Danube Rivers together, a new era of European river
cruising was launched. As the new millennia began AmaWaterways, founded
in 2002, began building ships for North American consumers with more
amenities and bigger staterooms and it has been growing exponentially ever
since.
Big ship cruisers, having exhausted all their options, flocked to river cruising
and, for the first five years, 80% of AmaWaterways' clients were of that ilk.
Jimmy Murphy, Chairman and co-owner of AmaWaterways, has said more
than once on radio shows that he was right about river cruising for the wrong
reason, at least initially. Based on 50 years in the tourism industry, as founder
of Brendan Vacations in the late 1960s, Murphy surmised that river cruising
would be popular and that those who had grown weary of coach touring
would be AmaWaterways' client base. Instead they got the big ship cruisers
and then word began to spread, with millions more still unaware of the nature
and history of the current river cruising trend.
Focusing on the
Cambodian tourism
industry, Marks noted
that it has increased to
2.5 million annually,
from 1.5 million, in the
last seven years and
that the "large
waterways make the
country a natural fit for
companies on the hunt
for new markets" Rudi
Schreiner,
President and co-owner of AmaWaterways, told Marks that "for us, it's an
upscale market" AmaWaterways, based out in Los Angeles, has a 50 percent
stake in the AmaLotus along with Indochina Sails, a Vietnamese cruising
company.
He went through the AmaWaterways pricing during low and high season and
then moved on to environmental issues and the hiring of locals to work on the
ships. The article reported that river cruising in Cambodia isn't a year round
industry since ships can reach Siem Reap, the northern most destination for

AmaWaterways in Cambodia, only between September and January "when
the water level in the Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia,
is high enough to let them pass"
Using diesel engines has raised concerns of pollution that AmaWaterways
and other companies are seeking to confront, but progress is slow and "there
is still a long way to go until standards reach those being enacted in Europe"
With 70 percent of Cambodia's total protein intake through its fish, it is vital
to keep the waterways from becoming polluted through the "release of
nitrogen oxides, produced when diesel fuel is burned, can lead to acidification
in water and soil"
The last issue was that money
spent in Cambodia on tourism
enhances the local population.
AmaWaterways Chairman and coowner Jimmy Murphy noted that
this "is one of the hard parts:
making sure that tourists arriving
in Cambodia—that the money they
spend works its way down,"
Marks, keenly tuned into the
Cambodian business scene, wrote
that with 57 people working on board the AmaLotus only ten were from
Cambodia, although they were making considerably more than the national
average. He sees huge potential for the river cruise industry in Southeast Asia
and thus a boom for Cambodia as aging baby boomers from Western
countries begin to travel more.
Simon Marks finished his fine article with a quote that goes to the heart of the
river cruising demographic: "The type of customers you find on here are quite
interested in learning things," said Geoff McGeary, the owner of APT Group,
an Australian travel company that has a share in AmaWaterways. "They
haven't come on this trip to lie on their back in the sun. They're out to see
things and learn things while they still can"

For more info contact Brad Butler:
ebgovm@pm.me