Silversea Cruises has appointed Connie Georgiou as head of sales and partnerships.
Georgiou will join the luxury line at the start of July from Avis, where she worked for 16 years. Her most recent role was head of UK travel and international strategic accounts, global travel and partnerships.
She replaces Silversea head of sales Natasha Donovan who has left the line after three years to pursue further studies.
As well as managing Silverseas’ sales function, Georgiou’s new role includes ‘partnerships’ as the line looks to collaborate with like-minded brands. It is to announce its first association imminently and is looking at further tie-ups.
Commercial director Lisa McAuley, who joined Silversea from Avis in June last year, said Georgiou would be taking responsibility for the existing sales team of which there are seven – five regional sales managers, a training and events executive and a national and key accounts manager.
McAuley said: “I am now happy with the sales structure and it’s timed perfectly as we have three ships in the UK this year – The Silver Wind, The Silver Whisper and the Silver Explorer, going to 25 ports of call, so we will be doing more ship visits for the trade than ever before. We’ll be going everywhere from Ullapool in North West
Scotland down to Fowey in Cornwall, to Belfast and Dublin, plus plenty of calls up the River Thames.
There’s always a challenge with small ships to get agents on board, as our ships are usually full, but we’ll be able to host plenty for lunches and dinners this year.
“It’s important that the trade gets to see and experience our product, and even more so as we have our newest ship, Silver Muse, launching in April 2017.”
McAuley confirmed that charter and incentive manager Maarten Tromp had also left Silversea last month. He has since set up his own charter and incentive consultancy for cruise lines.
A new marketing executive Claire Housein has been recruited to join marketing manager Natalie Sexton.