While the landscape is dry, the water level drops steeply. Rivers and lakes are drying up — and, as they wreak havoc on trade and industry, they’re also hitting a sector already on its knees thanks to the pandemic: tourism. Worse, experts say this is a worrying sign of things to come.
Drama on the Rhine
The Rhine is now so low that commercial shipping is unsustainable. Michael Probst/AP The 766-mile-long Rhine is one of Europe’s most important trade routes, with container ships plying its bends. It is also a classic cruise itinerary. But now some of those waterway dreams appear to have collapsed. On Saturday, the water level in the German town of Kaub — a critical turning point — dropped to just 36 centimeters, or 14 inches, according to official figures. This is disastrously low — at 40cm, commercial shipping becomes unprofitable. None of this is news, says Clare Weeden, senior lecturer in tourism and marketing at the University of Brighton. “Anyone who operates cruise ships on the river would have understood because of the way the climate has changed over the last 20 years,” he says, adding that low levels in the Rhine and Danube have seen incidents of passengers being bussed from one destination to another. the last five or six years. But while cruise lines may have anticipated this, customers have not. “River cruising is becoming much more popular, particularly for active people,” he says. “You get on early, spend the day enjoying a city, then get back on the boat at the end of the day and travel. It’s much quieter [than mass cruising]. But drought and climate change have coincided with an increase in river cruising.” But he warns that, with the climate crisis, Europe’s traditional river cruise “will certainly suffer” and predicts that “the industry is likely to be re-regulated as a result”.
A thriving business — for now
The Rhine is a classic river cruise destination in Europe. Michael Probst/AP Helen Prochilo of cruise specialist Promal Vacations calls the European river cruise “the hottest thing we’re selling this year.” A little too hot: While none of her clients have been affected yet, she says that among her colleagues, one had a client’s cruise canceled this week and another had his itinerary adjusted. River cruise changes tend to be very last minute because they depend on water levels and rain. Prochilo says many river cruisers are purpose-built with flatter hulls to deal with low water levels. In case of difficulty, those who have swimming pools on board can empty them. Railings, furniture and even the captain’s bridge are designed to be lowered while passing under bridges in high water, adds Rob Clabbers, president of Q Cruise + Travel, a Virtuoso member agency in Chicago. Not that this prevents problems. In 2017, Prochilo herself booked a Rhine trip with Emerald, only to find “very low levels” of water. “The ship emptied the pool to lighten the load and we could actually feel the ship hitting the bottom of the river,” he says. “We never saw the captain after the first night. He stayed on the bridge to ensure the ship was carefully handled.” Others were not so lucky. Prochilo says they passed another cruise line offloading their passengers onto buses. “The construction of the ship and the experience of the captains is very important in weather like this,” he says. And she’s taking no chances – seeing the water levels in the Rhine fall last month has her advising would-be customers to wait until next year. “I also advise them to cruise earlier in the season, as river levels don’t seem to be a problem if they’re traveling in May or June versus July or August,” he says. For those already booked, he makes regular calls to river cruise lines checking conditions. Those conditions are pretty catastrophic — levels are “extremely low” in some areas, German officials told CNN on Friday. In fact, Weeden believes that Rhine cruises “will be a thing of the past” before long. So what will happen this year? CLIA, which represents cruise operators, says: “River cruise operators … are monitoring the situation and responding appropriately in cooperation with the relevant authorities. “The safety of guests and crew will be central to any decisions about routes. Where changes are planned, operators are working hard to minimize any disruption.” River cruise specialist Riviera Travel said in a statement: “We have seen minimal disruption so far as we have taken measures such as swapping ships and minor itineraries to ensure guests can get the most out of their cruises.” . A ship may depart a destination a few hours earlier, for example. Viking Cruises’ website states that “low water levels will affect select river itineraries.” The cruise line will contact affected travelers. To alleviate the problems, Viking runs sister ships that sail the same route, but in opposite directions. If there is a problem on one side of the river, guests can be transferred to the other ship. Clabbers says “many lines” do this. “If low (or high) water prevents passage at a certain point, the line simply moves the downstream sailing passengers (and their luggage) to the upstream ship and vice versa. The ships return to their point of origin with their ‘new’ passengers who simply continue their journey without much interruption’. And if all else fails, they use the boat as a hotel and bus travelers to their destinations each day. It may not be as romantic, but it is effective. “The distances covered by the river cruise are not very long, so sometimes passengers see even more as the buses travel faster,” says Clabbers, from personal experience. “On a Uniworld cruise a few years ago, high water held up the ship in Vienna for three days, and the company did a fantastic job of creating additional tours that showed us sights that weren’t included in our original schedule.” Have you booked a Rhine cruise for this year? Don’t cancel, he says — you might be fined. Just try to go with the flow. But if you haven’t booked yet and want to travel this year, he suggests looking at alternatives like the Seine or the Douro.
No river unscathed
The Danube fell in Budapest. Anna Szilagyi/AP Not that it’s much better. The picture is grim for all of Europe’s rivers. And of course there is the Danube. The situation on Europe’s other tourist river also looks blue. Emergency dredging is currently underway in the lower river, in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. While there are “no problems” in the Austrian section, authorities told CNN on Friday, the situation in Hungary — perhaps the most famous section of the Danube — is more worrisome. The drought is already devastating to trade — an average 1,600-ton vessel can now only sail the river without cargo, according to the Hungarian Tourist Board. So far the situation for tourist boats is holding up. Mahart Passnave Passenger Shipping Ltd., which operates river cruises, still operates all the way along the Danube, although some stations are closed north of Budapest. Between Szentendre and Visegràd, about 15 miles north of the capital, the river takes a major loop. “Some stations [there] they have been closed for about a month, as ships cannot dock due to the low water level,” says a representative of the Hungarian Tourism Organization. But not all companies manage to navigate the river — and not all have as good a track record on buses as Clabbers. “I’ve had travelers whose ship couldn’t make it to Budapest — they had to board their ship in Komarno” — about an hour away in Slovakia — says tour guide Julia Kravianszky. “The travelers flew to Budapest, where they were transferred to Komarno by bus and returned to Budapest the next day for their city tour, only to return to the ship by bus after the tour.” Things are already looking different in Budapest, perhaps the most beautiful city along the river. “The Danube is visibly lower right now, it’s been very low for two or three weeks,” says Kravianszky. “Margaret Island looks bigger because all the rocks on the river bottom are now visible. Some parts of the old Margaret Bridge that was destroyed in WWII are also visible now.” But don’t cancel your trip just yet. The river still “looks big and majestic — it doesn’t really give the image of a dried-up river,” he says. For now, it’s the locals who can make the difference.
“If it’s like this next year, I’ll retire”
In Italy, the Po is not navigable in places. Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg/Getty Images And then there’s Italy, where the Po River is at historic lows and has almost disappeared in places. It’s devastating news for the entire country — and it has put an end to tourism in parts of the river this summer. For the past 20 years, Stefano Barborini has been renting boats and taking guests to his area in the Pado, near Parma. This year he has not managed a single outing. “I’ve been in Panos for 40 years and this has never happened before,” he says. “We’ve had droughts before, but this low — never. There’s been erosion of the bottom, so the river is deeper. It’s usually navigable year-round.” This year, he says, “It started really early — it didn’t rain and everything dried out.” His small boats usually run all over the river, and close to the beaches, to…
