You won’t see any paddlewheelers docking at the Henderson downtown riverfront this summer. That’s because the company that runs the cruises, American Queen Voyages, has shut down.
Multiple mid-week media reports said the company shut down Tuesday. Its website, www.aqvinfo.com, posted this: “Despite great efforts by our team, crew and partners, American Queen Voyages (AQV) unfortunately has been unable to rebound from the effects of the pandemic. The overnight cruise industry was especially affected by changes in travel preferences and, as a result, AQV has become financially unsustainable.
“We are therefore shutting down the business, and all future AQV cruises have been cancelled.”
For years, the docking of a paddlewheeler, or what’s commonly called a steamboat locally, downtown seemed a rite of summer in Henderson, with cruisers walking up the steep bank to board a tour bus led by many local historical buffs or bypassing the buses for the downtown shopping district to browse the boutiques.
But since the pandemic, as mentioned in the AQV’s goodbye notice, the number of people on the boats has dwindled, said Henderson tourist Commission Executive Director Abby Dixon.
In 2021, when the paddlewheelers began cruising again, Dixon said that the boats would come in at about 30% capacity, which left local tour buses designated for the passengers with sometimes two or three people in them. Dixon said before the pandemic tour buses were often full.
“This is just an industry that has really struggled since Covid,” she said.
She said passengers routinely gave positive reviews to their river cruising experience on the three boats that most often docked in Henderson—the American Queen, American Countess and the American Dutchess.
Dixon said “we’re obviously disappointed” because the boats have been a focal point for the downtown area in the summers.
But the economic impact from the boats’ dockings was “minimal,” she said. Most passengers ate on board because of the package deals so the impact on local restaurants wasn’t big, she said.
In summers past, the boats made 20-plus visits, but the past summer the number of visits was cut drastically, Dixon said. Before the announcement to shut down, the company had only two visits scheduled for the coming summer, she said.