River and Canal Waterways as a Tourism Resource

The rejuvenation of waterways, including rivers and canals as well as riverbanks, has led to an almost explosive increase in the touristic colonization of these fluvial landscapes. In Europe, navigable rivers once used to transport freight have undergone a tourism inspired renaissance as river cruise routes. A similar renaissance has occurred in many of Europe's canal systems. This paper identifies four key elements that form the core of waterway tourism: the structural elements of waterways; the on-land experience; the on-water experience, and; the onboard experience. Structural elements include waterway capacity and use profile, the on-land experience refers to the use of riverbanks for recreation and tourism, the on-water experience refers to activities including swimming, fishing and recreational boating and, the onboard experience refers to the lived experiences of passengers on overnight waterway cruising. The discussion in this paper addresses two research issues related to the core elements of waterway tourism, testing of the canal lifecycle model and exploration of the lived experiences of river cruising in Europe.