Rubber ducks riding high from Hong Kong to hotel rooms to cruise ships. Why so?

Now a new duck has joined the MO flock.

“All the Mandarin Orientals have a rubber duck but ours is the most glamorous,” says Susanne Hatje, general manager of the just opened Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, in London, the UK capital, where the toy waterfowl found in rooms and suites has gold plumage and a red bill.

“And our duck has a name – Douglas,” she says.

The first rubber ducks were made in the 1880s, although not as we know them today – the cheery yellow versions we recognise now were born in the 1940s.

While many credit US-based sculptor Peter Ganine for creating the yellow rubber duck in 1949, Hong Kong tycoon Lam Leung-tim, known as “King of Rubber Ducks”, had invented one in 1948, thinking a brightly coloured waterbird would be fun for children to play with in the bath.

It turns out adults find them appealing, too – rock star Iggy Pop recently said he enjoys having a bubble bath with a rubber duck, and it was reported that the late British queen had a rubber duck wearing a crown in her Buckingham Palace bathroom.

Julie Hastings, a recently retired marketing director of Northern Ireland’s Hastings Hotels, which has its own duck toy, summed up their appeal. “I read that a rubber duck in your bath can relieve the tensions and stresses of everyday life.

“I thought that the fun factor of finding a rubber duck in the bathroom would bring a smile to guests, and we encourage them to take the ducks home,” she said.

Hastings, also known as Lady Duck, has created more than 100 toy versions for the luxury hotel chain, including Rory “Quack” Ilroy, modelled on Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, and a duck in honour of the fantasy series Game of Thrones, partly filmed in the country.

Accent Inns, in Canada, also has toy ducks in many varieties, including a saxophone player, a snorkeller and one in hair rollers.

Britain’s Apex Hotels has a different duck design for every property, each with its own name. Rennie, in Glasgow, is named after the artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and if you take a bath in Bath, you can do so with Oliver – named for a local cookie.

It is not just hotels – airline Lufthansa has a signature rubber duck, too.

The waterbird was first introduced in the bathrooms at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal at Germany’s Frankfurt airport, a spokeswoman says. It is currently available on request at the terminal and in first class lounges in Frankfurt.

Limited editions are launched to mark sporting events and holidays, and passengers have been known to book a flight with the airline just to get their hands on a duck.

Shops whose only item is costumed rubber ducks have cropped up at tourist destinations throughout Europe. One of the first was the Amsterdam Duck Store, which now has outlets in cities including Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome and Venice.

“The ducks bring people together and they bring a smile to everybody’s face, no matter who you are,” says owner Barbara de Vlam.

De Vlam, who ran a children’s gift shop, pivoted to ducks in response to a suggestion from her daughter and because she was inspired by Hofman, who is Dutch.

Dutch-themed ducks are particularly popular in the Amsterdam store. Amusing designs include one based on the Johannes Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, and ducks with windmill sails. In the chain’s other European stores, localised ducks – a gondolier in Venice, a Colosseum-themed one in Rome, for example – are bestsellers.

Rubber ducks are beginning to turn up on cruise ships too, with passengers hiding them for others to find. The craze is thought to have been started by American girl Abby Davis as a fun way to pass sea days on board and to connect with fellow guests.

“We have many cruise ships in Amsterdam and the [passengers] all find their way to the Duck Store,” de Vlam says.

Although the hiding of ducks on cruise ships is clearly annoying to some – there have been calls to ban it, and it has been criticised for being wasteful – Carnival Cruise Line brand ambassador John Heald said on social media platform Facebook recently that: “I read a few posts this morning, saying that … the cruise line have banned people from hiding ducks.

“I don’t know where this nonsense comes from so let me say this is simply and respectfully as I can, please. Hiding ducks. I support it. Carnival supports it.”

Gillian Rhys