P&O Cruises is looking to expand its trade sales team with four appointments in the coming weeks.
Rob Scott, vice-president of sales, marketing and brand, revealed the line was hiring a trade training manager and three partnership development managers to secure new agents and provide additional support for existing agent partners.
Speaking on the line’s new Arvia vessel last week, Scott said: “We’ve got extra capacity for the UK market and we know that the product sells well but we need to support agents.”
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He outlined how the partnership development managers would oversee the north, south and central parts of the country. “Their role is in essence is to get back out on the road,” he said.
The training manager will “continue to build on the breadth of training tools available online and face-to-face”, Scott added.
“We can support more agents and more new-to-brand agents,” he explained.
Asked about the size of the trade sales team, Scott said: “We’re now above 30. We’re certainly getting back up to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’ve already got one got one partnership development manager to test the water and we’ve seen real success with that. If we can prove the success, we’ll keep going.
“When you’ve got 40% capacity growth you’ve got to keep moving. There are opportunities for everyone here, so we’ll keep pushing every distribution channel.”
He said business managers in the sales team supported the line’s major accounts such as Hays Travel, Bolsover Cruise Club and Tui.
“The partnership development managers that secure new accounts and agencies that ordinarily would not get air time or face-to-face time but do quite strongly for us,” he said. “We just can’t get to them currently.”
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