Royal’s UK and Ireland senior sales director Aaron Langford confirmed agents would be invited on ship visits on the revamped Allure of the Seas this summer and Legend of the Seas next year.
This summer’s overseas ship visits will be the first time Royal has hosted agents onboard for a day in another country.
Legend – Royal’s third Icon-class ship – will debut in July 2026 with a programme of seven-night western Mediterranean sailings from Barcelona.
Before that, Royal will deploy its Oasis-class Allure of the Seas ship in Barcelona this summer following its ongoing $100 million overhaul.
Langford told TTG: “We’re starting to do ship visits overseas. Barcelona is a big thing for us and it’s an easy hop for UK and Irish agents.”
However, Langford declined to say how many agents would be invited on these overseas ship visits.
But he added: “We’ve got 60 agents going on each ship visit on Independence of the Seas. I would like the numbers we host onboard to be meaningful. We working through logistics now.
“We’ve not taken people out to Barcelona before unless there’s been a new ship in town.”
Langford noted how other Royal’s European trade sales teams would also be allocated places for Allure and Legend ship visits.
Langford said he pushes his team to “track” how many bookings agents make when they return from ship visits.
But he added: “Of course, it’s a bit of a challenge. One of the things that I’ve instilled in the team since becoming sales director is making sure we track agents’ performance.
“It’s all about making sure that we get bang for our buck. We’re already seeing results from our agent partners who went on Utopia of the Seas and they only got back last week."
