Riviera Travel holds first agent awards ceremony

Riviera Travel has held its first agent awards event to celebrate its trade partners.

The Riv Awards took place in central London and included 17 presentations across regional, national and special recognition categories.

The company said the event had been created to thank partners “including sales agents, offices and collaborators”. It was hosted by television presenter and journalist Dean Wilson.

Winners in the regional and national categories were chosen based on year-on-year revenue growth and sales volume, while the special recognition award winners were selected “by evaluating brand engagement and marketing initiatives as well as delivering strong volume and YOY growth”.

CRUI.SE was named best up and coming partner, while Hays Travel, Rivercruising.co.uk and Travel Counsellors were named top overall accounts in retail, OTA and homeworking channels respectively.

Miles Morgan Travel and Fred Olsen Travel were honoured for top overall engagement and marketing account respectively, while GoCruise & Travel’s Christina Astill was named Riviera Ambassador.

Vicky Billing, Riviera head of trade & partnerships UK & Ireland, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to say that the very first Riviera Travel Trade Awards – or The Riv Awards – was a huge success!

“It was a truly special event dedicated to recognising the incredible contribution of our trade partners.

“Personally, if I could give every single person in the trade an award, I would. The support and growth we’ve seen – across both river cruising and touring – has been nothing short of phenomenal, but it’s the people behind it all who make the real difference.”

She added: “We can’t thank our trade partners enough for all their support, we could not do what we do without them and I’m already looking forward to next year’s awards – and I’ve no doubt they’ll be even bigger and better!”