Peter Deilmann Cruises, a major European river cruise operator with seven river ships and one ocean-going ship, will cease its river cruising operations starting in 2010 and put its river vessels into receivership. According to press releases from the company’s headquarters in Holstein, Germany, the move is due to a 50 percent drop in U.S. and U.K. bookings, unfavorable exchange rates and lack of a resolution with the company’s banks. No one has been booked on 2010 river cruises, as bookings for those sailings had yet not opened. The company’s ocean division is unaffected, and the line’s one ocean-going vessel, the Deutschland, will continue to operate in 2010. www.deilmann-cruises.com.