Tauck Tops In Travel + Leisure Awards 
10.01.2014
Tauck Tops In Travel + Leisure Awards
If it's the New Year, it is Awards Season, and that is just as much true for the travel business as it is for Hollywood and TV. And it's also good news for Tauck river-cruises in the latest Travel + Leisure Awards.
Having seen Grand Circle take the top river-cruise line honours in the readers' poll from Conde Nast Traveler recently (see this news story), it was interesting to see Travel + Leisure's take on the same subject. And, while Grand Circle did grab a place in the top 5, it was Tauck who earned the No.1 honours for 2013 with the big American travel magazine, and their annual readers poll (for the second time in three years).
Here's how the voting went:
1. Tauck, 93.71
2. Uniworld, 92.87
3. Grand Circle Cruises, 92.79
4. Viking River Cruises, 91.66
5. AmaWaterways, 90.02
6. Avalon, 86.23.
The 'Best' honour marked a jump from the previous No.3 for Tauck, while Uniworld stayed at No.2, Grand Circle jumped up from No.5 and Viking surprisingly fell from the 2012 No.1 spot. AMA and Avalon were both new to the poll this year.
The fact that all earned high marks, though, is possibly the most interesting point of all, especially as the competition for river-cruising has become so fierce in the past few years.
In the increasingly high profile that cruising by river has earned for itself, it seems there is a general raising of standards all round, and the fact no-one can really agree on who the No.1 actually is suggests it is a close-run race and, ultimately, the winner is anyone who actually decides to take a river-cruise these days.
But what do YOU think? Who is No.1 in your eyes? And should we start our own poll here at River Cruises Europe?
Answers on a postcard, please...!
PS: You can see more about the annual 'World's Best' Awards with Travel + Leisure here: http://www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/2013