About an Bord

an Bord

an Bord is Germany's leading magazine for ship travel and maritime worlds, published quarterly from Bremen for 35 years. Its program combines detailed, well-researched and entertaining reportage on ocean and river voyages — from luxury sailing ships to cargo vessels carrying passengers — with destination features on port cities and shore excursions, insider topics, personnel news, maritime events and industry news. The magazine addresses an attractive triple audience: affluent, active travel enthusiasts dreaming of their next cruise, decision-makers in the shipping industry, and the cruise consultants in travel agencies whose recommendations shape bookings. With a reader loyalty few magazines can match — 72 percent of subscribers have held their subscription for ten years or more — an Bord has made "Lust auf Kreuzfahrt" (appetite for cruising) its editorial mission.

Overview

Cruising is one of the German travel market's great growth stories: Germany is among the world's largest cruise source markets, with millions of passengers annually across ocean and river cruising, and a domestic industry led by AIDA Cruises and TUI Cruises alongside the international lines serving German ports. an Bord addresses this market from both sides — the consumer dreaming of the voyage and the industry selling it. The quarterly rhythm suits the cruise business's long planning horizons: ships are booked months ahead, new vessels are announced years in advance, and the magazine's reportage functions as both inspiration and buying guide.

Each issue brings reportage on ocean and river ships across the full spectrum — the luxury sailing ship and the expedition vessel, the river cruiser on the Rhône, the Danube or the Mekong, the boutique ship and the cargo freighter that takes a handful of guests. Destination features present worldwide dream destinations and port cities in detail, with the shore-excursion reporting that helps readers plan their days ashore. The insider sections cover the industry's personnel moves, maritime events and trade news — the B2B layer that makes the magazine the industry's medium as well as the enthusiast's. The website anbord.de extends the brand into daily news and a weekly newsletter, covering the continuous flow of cruise-line announcements, new ships, itineraries and industry developments between the quarterly print issues.

The media data documents the magazine's market position: nearly 35 years as market leader among German ship-travel magazines, with top performance values across the key distribution channels (newsstand, subscription, direct marketing) and in economic efficiency. The reader survey figures tell the loyalty story: 92 percent of surveyed readers rate the magazine good or very good, 75 percent keep it or pass it on, 72 percent have subscribed for ten years or longer and intend to stay, and 60 percent say an Bord inspired them to book a ship voyage — the conversion metric advertisers value most.

History

an Bord was founded around 1990 — "35 years" of publication places the founding at the start of the 1990s — as the German cruise market was entering its modern growth phase. The timing was fortuitous: the 1990s and 2000s brought the great expansion of cruising as a mass-market product, with ever-larger ships, the rise of the German cruise lines, and river cruising's emergence as a distinct market. A magazine devoted entirely to ship travel gave the growing community of cruise enthusiasts its own medium and the industry its own advertising platform.

The magazine's development mirrors the cruise industry's cycles. The 2000s and 2010s brought the boom years — new ship classes, the expedition-cruise segment, the luxury and ultra-luxury tiers — and the magazine grew with them, its reportage following the industry's geographical expansion from the classic Mediterranean and Caribbean to Alaska, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia's rivers and the polar regions. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21 was the industry's existential crisis — the global fleet laid up, newbuilds delayed — and the magazine navigated it alongside its readers and advertisers, maintaining its publishing rhythm through the industry's darkest period. The post-pandemic rebound, with record booking levels and a wave of new ships, restored the magazine's growth context. Through it all, the Bremen base — the historic Hanseatic port city — has anchored the magazine's maritime identity, while advertising sales operate through Hamburg, the German cruise industry's commercial center.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's content is organized around the cruise experience in its full breadth. Ship reportage is the core: detailed portraits of ocean and river vessels, from the newest mega-ships to the sailing cruise ships, expedition vessels, river cruisers and the working freighters that carry a dozen passengers — each presented with the practical detail (cabins, dining, itineraries, atmosphere) that readers use to choose their voyages. Recent features illustrate the range: the Star Princess's first Alaska season, a South Sea voyage aboard the Amera, a Mekong cruise through Laos, the Turkish Aegean aboard the small ship Gemini, world cruises aboard the Vasco da Gama.

Destination coverage presents the world's ports and cruise regions — the Norwegian fjords, the Greek islands, the South Pacific atolls, the Douro valley's wine country — with the shore-excursion detail that distinguishes cruise journalism from general travel writing. The industry sections track the business: new ships and refurbishments (such as Cunard's Queen Victoria modernization), new itineraries and programs (P&O Cruises' 2027/28 Canaries program, Costa's world cruise), personnel news, and the trade-fair and event calendar including the ITB Berlin presentations where the industry unveils its seasons. Historical features — such as the story of the Hapag ship Ariadne's first postwar cruise in 1958 — connect the industry's present to its past. The website's daily news flow covers the continuous announcements: newbuild orders, itinerary changes, onboard innovations, and the industry's responses to events from activist protests to regulatory changes.

Organization and Ownership

an Bord is published from Bremen, the Hanseatic city whose port history gives the magazine its maritime home. Advertising sales are handled by TELLUS CORPORATE MEDIA GmbH of Hamburg, the standard structure for specialist magazines that outsource media sales to dedicated firms. The editorial team combines the magazine's own ship experts — journalists who travel the vessels they write about — with contributors from the cruise industry and the travel trade.

The magazine's commercial model is the classic enthusiast-press mix: subscriptions (the loyal core, with the remarkable ten-year-plus retention), newsstand sales, and advertising from the cruise lines, shipyards, tourism boards, travel agencies and the maritime supply industry. The triple audience — affluent consumers, industry decision-makers, travel-agency cruise consultants — gives advertisers both the end customer and the trade channel in a single medium. The media data's emphasis on distribution performance across newsstand, subscription and direct marketing reflects a circulation strategy built for the long term rather than promotional spikes.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is anbord.de, which carries daily cruise news, press releases, blog features and the archive of current and past issues — the site lists the quarterly editions from 2025 into 2026, confirming the publishing rhythm. The weekly newsletter delivers the industry's news flow to subscribers' inboxes, functioning as the cruise trade's regular briefing between print issues. The website's tag-based archives — covering cruise lines from P&O to Costa, destinations, and the "Auf Kurs" (on course) reportage series — make the site a searchable cruise reference.

On social media, the magazine maintains channels reporting current events, news and highlights from the cruise world, extending the brand's "Lust auf Kreuzfahrt" mission into the daily scroll. The digital strategy follows the quarterly print logic: the magazine provides the curated, in-depth ship and destination reportage that rewards long reading, while the website and newsletter deliver the daily industry news and the practical booking-season information. After 35 years, an Bord operates as the German cruise world's cross-media companion: quarterly in print for the dreaming and planning, daily online for the news, and weekly in the newsletter — serving the enthusiasts who fill the ships, the consultants who sell the voyages, and the industry that builds them.