European waterways as a source of leisure and recreation

Recent interest in travel along European waterways has revived a form of passenger transport that predates the Roman occupation of much of Europe almost two millennia ago (Steinbach, 1995; Baranowski and Furlough, 2001).\ud Europe's waterways have a long history of having been utilized to transport freight and travellers from one settlement or country to another (Davies, 1998). Europe's geography provides an extensive network of natural waterways\ud which, over time, have been connected by numerous canals. A number of European countries including France built many short canals to connect rivers while other countries including Germany focused on large canal developments\ud to connect their waterways. These extensive canal networks now support growing river tourism activity throughout Europe, particularly in the long-distance segment (Roberts and Simpson, 1999). Currently, the main focus of river tourism development is on cruises of the major river systems with an emphasis on central Europe (Ely, 2003). Elsewhere in Europe cruising can be found in most areas where there are suitable waterways and development in\ud these areas includes cruises on rivers, canals and lakes. River tourism can be land-based as well as water-based. This chapter will use examples from a variety of European waterways and their immediate surrounds to present an overview of activities that are both water- and land-based and which collectively constitute Europe's river tourism sector