Trade Secrets is on a holiday break, but in the meantime, we wanted to share some of Travel Weekly and TravelAge West’s other podcasts with our listeners. This week’s episode is Humans of Travel, hosted by Trade Secrets co-host Emma Weissmann, featuring AmaWaterways’ Kristin Karst.
If you’ve worked in the travel industry for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with Karst. The co-owner and executive vice president of river cruise line AmaWaterways, Karst is a staple at most travel industry conferences, perhaps best known for her bubbly personality, welcoming demeanor and close, personal relationships with travel advisors.
However, many travel industry colleagues may not know Karst’s unique backstory. She was born and grew up in Dresden, a German town along the Elbe River, in what was formerly Eastern Germany, under a regime that mostly kept Karst and her family isolated from the Western World.
In this episode of Humans of Travel, Karst reflects on a childhood spent under the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, and how the limited travel her family was able to do allowed her to gain an appreciation for all that Eastern Europe had to offer and fostered an early love of tourism.
Karst will also dive into what it was like when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and how she got her start in the travel industry as a leisure manager at American Express Travel, a role that she kept until she moved to Southern California and met Rudi Schreiner, her husband-to-be and the former president of Viking Cruises.
Listeners will hear Karst reflect on the early days of AmaWaterways, how she keeps her work-life balance in check and what’s behind her unwavering positivity.

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