The account will be overseen by Anna Perrott as a dedicated business development manager.

The Cruise Portfolio already looks after Crystal Cruises and Paul Gauguin Cruises and will be well-known to agents already, as is Perrott, having held a number of trade relationship roles.

For Windstar, she will “effectively build the business from scratch and drive gains in revenue and market share”. Windstar Cruises operates a fleet of six small vessels, of which three are sailing ships and three are all-suite cruise ships, but none has a passenger capacity of more than 350 guests.    

“While many cruise lines have paused operations, research is showing that regular cruisers are increasingly looking at smaller ships with fewer guests which is perfect for Windstar,” said Perrott.  “As a cruise line that sells exclusively through the trade, we are keen to engage with our travel agent partners as much as possible and provide them with all the tools they need to sell the product.”

Perrott said she will be offering webinars, training sessions, virtual ship visits, incentives and, “when the time is right”, familiarisation trips to enable agents to experience the Wind Class ships or the $250 million refit of Star Plus Class ships. 

“We will also be offering great agent rates for their own holidays,” she added.

Seattle-based Windstar has also just announced a new president, with Christopher Prelog taking on the role. His career in the cruise industry started with Seabourn as a waiter, then in onboard hotel operations and finally as head of all ship operations before joining Windstar nearly four years ago.  

The Cruise Portfolio is part of Mundy Cruising, which is currently celebrating 50 years since its launch.