Asia’s River Cruising Market Grows as Travellers Seek Slow Travel

RV Tonle Pandaw sailing in Vietnam

Tonle Suites cabin onboard RV Tonle Pandaw

Asia’s rivers are becoming the new frontier of slow travel, with Pandaw driving growth in expedition cruising across Southeast Asia and India.

SAIGON, VIETNAM, January 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Long before tourists rediscovered Burma’s rivers, a young historian did. Travelling the Irrawaddy in the 1980s and 1990s, Paul Strachan saw the waterway as a living archive rather than a transport route. When he restored a colonial-era steamer in 1995, the intention wasn’t to build a cruise company so much as to create an expedition-style way for travellers to connect with the region as he had: slowly through everyday encounters. That philosophy—rivers first, ships second—still shapes the company that eventually became Pandaw.

Three decades later, the wider travel industry is catching up to the value of that pace. According to CNBC’s 2026 Travel Trends Survey report, 91 percent of travellers expect to prioritise slower, more immersive trips this year, driven by a desire for authenticity, learning and cultural connection. That recalibration has put Asia’s rivers, long treated as scenic backdrops, back at the centre of the map.

Pandaw, widely credited with pioneering expedition river cruising in Southeast Asia, sits squarely inside that shift. What began with that first Irrawaddy sailing has evolved into a network of routes carrying more than 5,000 guests a year across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and India.

As demand matures, river cruising in Asia is diversifying in form and function. One shift is toward shorter modular segments that integrate easily into regional travel circuits. On the Mekong, Pandaw’s new three-night Saigon to Phnom Penh sailing gives travellers, particularly expats and long-haul visitors, the option to pair a cruise with wider regional travel without committing to a full week onboard. It’s a solution built around how people are actually travelling across Southeast Asia now: multi-stop and flexible.

Another shift is geographic. India’s Kerala Backwaters, long dominated by dayboats and overnight houseboats, are emerging as an inland alternative to the country’s more saturated coastal and urban tourism circuits. With high demand on inaugural sailings, Pandaw will add a second vessel to the route at the end of 2026, doubling capacity as interest grows in India’s inland waterways and the wider appeal of expedition-style travel.

A third trend is the move upmarket. River cruising is now firmly part of the luxury travel conversation, prompting Pandaw to step into the premium cabin space with the introduction of Tonle Suites aboard the RV Tonle Pandaw. The shift suggests that high-end travellers are willing to choose small ships so long as comfort and intimacy coexist.

“We never set out to be part of mainstream cruising,” Pandaw Founder & CEO Paul Strachan says. “For us, the rivers come first and the ships simply follow them. The goal has always been to get into places that would otherwise remain unseen and enable guests to experience life along the water rather than what life is like on a ship.”

With borders open, regional connectivity improving and long-haul markets returning, Asia is well positioned for this next phase of tourism growth. Shorter itineraries appeal to a growing base of regional travellers; expanded capacity in India opens a new inland geography; and premium suites signal the arrival of an upscale audience that previously overlooked the category. If 2025 was the year Asia reopened, 2026 is shaping up to be the year its rivers take centre stage again.

Cassidy Newman
Pandaw Cruises Ltd
+84 28 4458 2618
marketing@pandaw.com
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