Virgin Voyages outlines 'ambitious but achievable' Caribbean target

Virgin Voyages’ sales chief wants half of all UK trade bookings in 2026 to be for the Caribbean, a target she describes as “ambitious but achievable”.

The Mediterranean has been the adult-only line’s top destination for UK passengers, with the Caribbean accounting for about 10% of total sales in 2024 and 33% in 2025.

UK director of sales SJ Walker told Travel Weekly the Caribbean has made up 43% of UK bookings so far this year, fuelled by the line’s deployment of all four of its ships in the destination, as she set out plans to continue this upward trajectory.

“Our ambition for the year is to have one-in-two bookings converted for the Caribbean,” she said.

Walker is hoping for a further boost in Caribbean bookings following the return of the line’s Bring on Bimini fam trip incentive, as well as a Caribbean-specific wave promotion.

“Driving that Caribbean message and prominence in the wave period is really important to us,” she said.

Walker said the adult-only line’s expanded trade sales team would enable it to be “much more prominent on the frontline with agents than ever before” and “reach new partners with a luxury audience”.

She said: “There are a lot of agents we might not be talking to with those luxury clients who might want to look sideways as a new-to-cruise customer and consider something different.”

To help achieve this, Walker aims to “simplify” Virgin Voyages’ adult-only messaging and focus on promoting its service, suites and destinations, including the line’s debut season in Alaska and maiden calls in Los Angeles this summer.

“Hopefully we can dip into that holiday market and help the cruise sector overall by building that adult-only audience,” she said.

Walker also unveiled plans for a Valiant Lady summer tour in the UK with the aim of hosting “as many First Mates (agents) as we can”.

“We did it for Brilliant Lady for two days, but this is going to be a lot bigger,” she said.

Walker said wave business had been “consistent”, with “momentum growing week on week”.

“January is traditionally our biggest booking month, but we did see strong spikes in performance in July and August last year as well,” she added.

“I would expect January to be a significant and important booking month for us again, and the results keep me quietly confident.”