Clia UK and Ireland has named Royal Caribbean’s Stuart Leven as its new chairman of the cruise association at its annual dinner.
Leven, Royal’s vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, was announced as the new chair at the event last night which was held at the Beaumont Estate in Windsor.
He will take over from UK managing director of Holland America Line and Seabourn, Lynn Narraway, who has served as chair for two years.
Leven said: “I have been in the cruise industry for just over three years now and I think I have taken my time to understand the market, who customers are and particularly the role agents play in growing the industry.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to come in and give some leadership to Clia within the UK and to continue the excellent work that is being done today by Andy and the team and continue on the legacy that has been left by Lynn, who has done a really great job.”
Leven said he was ready for a “busy but fun” couple of years at, what he described as a pivotal time for the industry.
“This is one of the most of exciting times for cruise yet, with the amount of growth coming in the next 10 years. There are a lot of new ships coming – 64 came in 2016 and many of these are now coming to the UK.
“I think we are in one of those moments in time for the cruise industry where we have a massive opportunity to steer change of how cruise is seen in the UK. Clia has focused very heavily on trying to get new to cruise customers.
“We need to continue this but also now enable our travel agents to find the right cruises for new customers so they come back for a second, third and fourth holiday.”
Leven joined Royal Caribbean in 2013 after working in airline, hotel and digital sectors. He will serve as Clia chair until May 2018.
Outgoing chair, Lynn Narraway, said: “During my time as chair we have seen remarkable growth in the number of people choosing to cruise.
“I am confident that Stuart will bring new insights and experience to the role to ensure even greater engagement in the coming years. I look forward to continuing to work closely with the Andy, Stuart and the wider Clia team as a member of the executive committee.”
The annual Cruise Excellence Awards were held at the event honouring five agencies and four individuals.
North west London agency Forever cruises won the ‘rising star award’ and Tui were awarded the ‘cruise innovation award’.
Iglu Cruise took home the award for best online agency, with runner up Cruise.co.uk given a highly commended honour.
High Street travel agency of the year went to Barrhead Travel and ‘travel agent business of the year’ went to Cruise.co.uk.
Janet Whittingham from Travel Counsellors was named cruise advocate of the year while Clare Dudley of Ponders Travel won the cruise manager award.
Two awards for outstanding contribution to the cruise community were given out, the first to Karen Doyle from Tui group and the second to Wendy Lahmich, director of sales at Holland America Line and Seabourn.