United Waterways, the Basel based specialist in white label ship management and floating event ships, is bringing its fast growing “Floating Venues” concept home.

With the acquisition of Basler Personenschifffahrt AG (BPG), approved on January 8, 2026 by the Grand Council of Basel Stadt, the company is adding three excursion and event vessels on the Upper Rhine and establishing Basel as its latest hub for waterborne meetings, incentives and leisure experiences.

The move extends a network that already includes London, Amsterdam, Cologne and Dresden and signals a new phase of innovation on Europe’s inland waterways centered on sustainable, modular venues on the water.

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A Strategic Homecoming On The Rhine

For United Waterways, the takeover of BPG is more than a portfolio deal. The group’s headquarters are in Basel, and founder Robert Straubhaar first launched River Advice here in 2004, building it into Europe’s largest provider of modular white label ship management services.

Integrating Basel’s local fleet into the company’s Floating Venues division closes a geographic and emotional loop, anchoring an international concept in its home city on the Rhine.

The acquisition gives United Waterways three additional ships that have long been fixtures on Basel’s stretch of the river, serving sightseeing, commuter and private event traffic.

Under the new ownership structure, the vessels will be positioned more clearly as event and excursion platforms, enhancing the city’s offer for both residents and visiting groups.

United Waterways has stressed that BPG will retain its own identity, operated together with the existing team, while benefiting from the group’s wider commercial reach and operational know how.

Basel’s authorities had been searching for a solution to rising operating costs at BPG, a public company whose subsidy needs were projected to climb significantly after 2026.

The sale to United Waterways gives the canton budgetary relief while committing a specialized private operator with a strong local presence to maintain and expand services on the water.

For the company, it is a chance to demonstrate in its home market how a commercial floating venue platform can coexist with everyday passenger transport and tourism.

Basel Joins A Network Of European Floating Venues

The Basel expansion slots into a rapidly widening map of floating event hubs run or managed by United Waterways under different brand names. In Germany, KD’s Rhine, Main and Moselle fleet offers day trips and chartered MICE events out of Cologne and other cities.

In Dresden, Weiße Flotte Sachsen operates what is regarded as the world’s oldest and largest paddle steamer fleet, also used as heritage rich event platforms.

In London, Thames Luxury Charters provides corporate and private functions on the Thames, while Oceandiva has become a prominent name for large scale event ships on rivers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

Basel now appears as the latest “Floating Venues” location in this portfolio, benefiting from synergies in sales, marketing and product development across cities.

The Upper Rhine is already an important corridor for river cruising between Switzerland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and United Waterways manages more than 120 passenger vessels worldwide under white label agreements for tour operators and brands.

Overlaying dedicated event and excursion ships on this cruise infrastructure allows for combined offerings, such as pre and post cruise events or chartered corporate sailings linked to major trade shows in Basel.

Industry observers note that the move strengthens Basel’s positioning in the competitive European meetings and events market. The city is known for its international trade fairs in sectors such as art, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, yet its riverfront had not been fully integrated into the MICE product mix.

With a dedicated floating venue platform backed by an established operator in this niche, local tourism and convention bodies gain new options to propose waterborne gala evenings, product launches or scientific networking events alongside traditional convention center and hotel spaces.

Sustainability And The Net Zero Agenda On The River

United Waterways has tied its expansion of floating venues to a broader sustainability transformation of its fleet.

The group has publicly committed to a roadmap toward net zero operations on inland waterways, in part through its Starling Fleet investment program and a series of newbuild and retrofit projects. Recent announcements point to plans for at least a dozen “green” passenger ships using low emission propulsion technologies, such as hybrid and multi fuel engines, optimized hull designs for shallow water and shore power capabilities.

Within the floating venues portfolio, the company points to flagship examples like Oceandiva Nova, hailed as one of the first fully electric large event ships in Europe and recognized with top tier environmental certifications.

KD has separately achieved notable sustainability scores from independent ratings by focusing on shore power infrastructure at its landing stages, reducing the need for diesel generators when ships are docked.

Such initiatives are being promoted as blueprints for future investments across the group’s venues.

Basel is likely to become a showcase for how these concepts can be integrated into a mid sized excursion fleet on a busy river corridor. The city already promotes low carbon mobility and has made environmental protection along the Rhine a policy priority.

With BPG now inside United Waterways, expectations are high that shore power solutions, fuel optimization strategies and potentially future retrofits could be rolled out on the Basel based ships as part of the group’s net zero journey.

That would allow the new floating venues to be marketed not only as unusual locations but also as climate conscious choices for events and daily transport.

What The Takeover Means For Basel’s Tourism And Residents

For Basel’s tourism sector, the change of ownership arrives at a time when competition among European river and conference cities is intensifying.

The integration of BPG into a larger, internationally connected platform is expected to expand the range of products on offer, from classic sightseeing tours to bespoke corporate charters and themed excursions.

Local stakeholders are already discussing opportunities to tie waterborne experiences to Basel’s crowded cultural calendar, including art fairs, design events, music festivals and museum programming.

Residents, meanwhile, are keen to see guarantees on public service levels and ticket affordability. United Waterways has emphasized that it views BPG as a “matter close to the heart” given its Basel roots and has expressed an intention to work closely with regional tourism partners to expand, rather than reduce, offerings on the river.

The company’s track record in other cities suggests a mix of scheduled public services and commercially oriented charter operations, though the precise balance in Basel will be shaped by local agreements and demand patterns.

Urban planners highlight that activating the riverfront with more diverse and higher quality services on the water can change how residents and visitors experience the city.

Floating venues can serve as moving extensions of the old town, the Messe exhibition grounds or the new districts along the Rhine, potentially easing pressure on land based infrastructure during major events.

However, questions remain about managing noise, light and traffic on the river, issues that will need to be coordinated carefully with environmental and neighborhood interests.

A Growing Market For Unconventional Waterborne Events

The Basel development reflects a wider trend in the European MICE industry toward unconventional event formats that combine place making and experience design.

Event planners are increasingly seeking locations that blend urban skylines, heritage architecture and open air settings, and riverside cities can offer this mix almost by default.

By standardizing and scaling floating event concepts across multiple destinations, United Waterways is positioning itself as a specialist supplier to that trend.

Its brands cater to a broad spectrum of group sizes and budgets, from historic paddle steamers in Dresden suited to nostalgic or heritage themed functions, to ultramodern glass and steel vessels like those operated under the Oceandiva name, which can host large scale brand showcases and conferences.

In London, charters on the Thames have become a staple of the city’s corporate hospitality scene, while in the Netherlands and Germany, waterfront regeneration has gone hand in hand with demand for waterborne stages and venues.

Adding Basel into this network opens cross selling perspectives. Multinational clients could, in theory, stage a product roadshow that starts on the Thames, travels to Amsterdam, continues via Cologne and culminates in Basel, with consistent service standards and operational support across all venues.

For regional Swiss and neighboring French and German companies, the presence of a floating venue option in Basel means such formats are no longer the preserve of larger capitals alone.

From River Management To Modular Ship Concepts

Behind the visible floating venues is a substantial technical and organizational apparatus that United Waterways has been refining for nearly two decades.

As a white label manager, the group operates vessels on behalf of cruise brands and tour operators, providing crewing, hospitality, maintenance and regulatory compliance under its own back end systems while front facing branding remains that of its clients.

This modular structure allows partners to enter the river or coastal cruise markets without building full scale maritime organizations in house.

More recently, the company has extended the modular concept from operations to ship design itself. An “River Cruise Configurator” concept presents clients with a standardized but flexible toolkit for specifying new river vessels, including options on length, deck count, cabin layouts and onboard facilities, all aligned with evolving sustainability requirements.

This approach is intended to reduce the complexity and risk of newbuild projects while accelerating the delivery of next generation ships to the market.

For floating venues, that modularity translates into a suite of adaptable platforms that can be tailored to local conditions in cities like Basel.

In practice, it could mean standardized back of house designs for catering and technical systems, combined with customizable passenger areas that reflect a destination’s architectural or cultural identity.

As environmental regulations on European waterways tighten and demand for energy efficient ships grows, such modular, upgradeable designs may become a competitive necessity rather than a nice to have feature.

Basel As A Testbed For Future Innovations

Industry analysts see Basel as a valuable testbed for United Waterways’ ambitions because it combines several attributes in a compact urban setting.

The city sits at a crossroads of three countries, has a strong base of international corporate headquarters, hosts globally renowned art and trade fairs and lies on one of Europe’s busiest river corridors.

At the same time, its existing passenger fleet is relatively small and manageable, making it easier to pilot new technologies, service concepts and partnerships than on larger river systems.

Possible future developments discussed by local and industry sources include increased use of shore power along Basel’s landing stages, digital ticketing and booking systems aligned with municipal mobility platforms, thematic collaborations with museums and cultural institutions, and educational cruises tied to environmental awareness along the Rhine.

The presence of the group’s River Academy training network, which supports skills development in inland navigation, could also play a role in staffing and upskilling crews based in Basel.

As the floating venues concept matures, Basel may help define how far such platforms can go beyond entertainment and hospitality to serve broader community and educational roles.

School groups, universities and research institutions might use the ships as mobile classrooms or innovation labs on topics ranging from river ecology to logistics and energy transition.

These ideas remain speculative, but United Waterways’ investment signals that it sees Basel as a long term anchor point in its European strategy rather than a simple acquisition for capacity.

FAQ

Q1. What exactly has United Waterways announced in Basel?
United Waterways has confirmed the acquisition of Basler Personenschifffahrt AG, the cantonally owned company that operates excursion and event ships on the Rhine in Basel. With this step, Basel becomes an official location in the group’s Floating Venues division, alongside cities such as London, Amsterdam, Cologne and Dresden.

Q2. How many ships are involved in the Basel takeover?
The transaction adds three event and excursion vessels from Basler Personenschifffahrt into United Waterways’ wider fleet. These ships will continue to operate on the Upper Rhine around Basel while being more strongly integrated into the company’s floating venue and charter offerings.

Q3. Will the Basler Personenschifffahrt brand disappear?
United Waterways has indicated that it intends to lead Basler Personenschifffahrt into an independent and successful future together with the existing team, suggesting continuity of the local brand and personnel while embedding operations into the broader group structure and standards.

Q4. What changes can residents and tourists in Basel expect on the river?
In the short term, day to day services such as sightseeing and excursion trips are expected to continue. Over time, residents and visitors may see a broader range of themed cruises, corporate charters and special events on the water, as well as potential upgrades to onboard services and shore side facilities.

Q5. How does this move fit into United Waterways’ sustainability plans?
The company has committed to a net zero roadmap on rivers and is investing in new “green” passenger ships and retrofits, including electric and hybrid propulsion and shore power connections. Integrating Basel’s fleet offers another opportunity to apply these technologies and operational practices in line with the city’s environmental goals.

Q6. Why did Basel decide to sell its passenger shipping company?
Cantonal authorities had been facing rising operating costs and higher projected subsidies for Basler Personenschifffahrt in the coming years. Selling to a specialized private operator such as United Waterways allows the canton to stabilize its finances while keeping river services in the hands of a company with strong local roots and international experience.

Q7. What is meant by “floating venues” in this context?
Floating venues are ships configured primarily as event locations rather than traditional scheduled ferries or cruise ships. They are used for meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions, gala dinners, product launches and private celebrations, often offering flexible indoor and outdoor spaces with city and riverscape views.

Q8. How does Basel compare to other cities in the United Waterways network?
Basel is smaller than hubs like London or Amsterdam but has a dense concentration of international companies, institutions and trade fairs, along with a compact historic center on the Rhine. This makes it well suited to boutique and mid scale floating events that can tie directly into the city’s cultural and business calendar.

Q9. Will ticket prices for regular river cruises in Basel increase after the takeover?
Specific pricing decisions have not been detailed publicly. As a commercial operator, United Waterways will need to balance profitability with accessibility and local expectations, and any fare adjustments are likely to be discussed with regional partners and communicated in advance to passengers.

Q10. When will Basel start to be marketed internationally as a floating venue destination?
Industry communications suggest that Basel will be integrated into United Waterways’ sales and marketing channels relatively quickly following regulatory approvals and operational handover. International promotion to event planners and tour operators is expected to ramp up over the course of 2026 as packages and new products are finalized.