The brand, which was sold by Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) to private equity firm, Sycamore Partners, in a $201 million deal in 2021, has just celebrated its best-ever booking day in its history taking into account sales before it left RCG.

Azamara's chief international sales officer David Siewers exclusively told TTG the line's "distribution channels are getting a lot deeper".

Cyber Monday (1 December) was Azamara's best booking day in its history while "multiple days" in the week of Black Friday entered the line's top five booking days ever.

Reflecting on those sales successes, Siewers said: "We wanted to see who is booking with us and what their agency IDs were. Around 120 UK agencies registered with us in 2025 and 108 of them had booked an Azamara cruise for the first time. There's a lot to explore within that."

Siewers suggested these agents may not have had a commercial deal in place with Azamara before their client had enquired about cruising with the brand.

When asked if Azamara would try to grow this figure in 2026, Siewers said: "We're a small but mighty team so I can't run them ragged. We will take it as it comes and keep our ear to the ground for opportunities to work with new advisors. I would just say we won't pull resource away to feed that one statistic."

He added: "There will be a lot more webinars, training events and opportunities to engage with the trade. We're aware that we should not try to fix something that is not broken."

During wave season, Azamara will double the agent's booking rewards, increasing the amount from £10 to £20, and bring back its free cruise competition for the trade.

"So every booking you make for us, you're getting more money on the spot plus the chance to win a great cruise," Siewers explained.

'We want to source more from the UK'

Furthermore, Siewers noted an ambition to "source more from the UK market". "We're expecting to pay a million dollars more in commissions to international markets than we did against 2025 sailings," he continued.

"What makes me excited is that, as we grow as a brand, we're bringing the travel partners on that journey with us and make sure we compensate them. It comes at a cost but it's a cost that we're happy to pay."

Siewers predicted that with the way that Azamara's 2028/29 deployment is shaping up there may be a sales "shift" towards the UK market.

"There are a lot of conversations about destinations that would really appeal to the UK market," he said. "I think we may see a shift there."

But he added: "I cannot anticipate where those commissions will go until we confirm our deployment."

Azamara's former UK and EMEA boss David Duff left the line in September, bringing the curtain down on a 17-year association with the brand.

Siewers hailed Duff's work overseeing the UK market before noting how Azamara's new sales structure which he leads seems to be working well so far.

"It really works for us," he said, adding: "David Duff is an incredible individual who is super intelligent. I'm waiting to see where he will pop up in the industry because I know he will.

"[UK and Ireland sales director] Stuart Pearce is very clearly our go-to sales leader for managing directors and front-line advisors.

"I get to go out on the road with Stuart and understand what is going on from an executive standpoint and relay that back to Miami.

"We have four small ships. We should be more nimble and faster than the rest of the market so being that clear and having fewer entry points in terms of executing a resolution seems to be working for us and that's why we're seeing a great response from the trade too."