Stuart Milan, the river cruise and escorted tour specialist’s trading director, said: “It’s fantastic to see such a positive performance from our agent partners.

"River cruise is selling particularly well through the trade, with The Blue Danube, The Douro, Porto and Salamanca and Rhine Cruise to Switzerland itineraries making up the majority of sales.”

The operator has appointed Chris McCloskey as key account manager for Scotland and Ireland and Lloyd Morris key account manager for the UK and Ireland. They will join on 22 January.

As part of its current wave incentive running in January and February, agents who make a Riviera booking will be automatically entered into a giveaway draw, with prizes including all-expenses-paid Riviera escorted tours, holiday vouchers and merchandise packages worth more than £3,000, plus iPads with air pods.

Vicky Billing, head of trade and partnerships, said: “These results are testament to the hard work we have put in to build our trade partnerships and demonstrate what a brilliant job travel agents are doing to spread the word about Riviera."

Billing added: "We know there is scope to grow even further, which is why we are focused on ensuring our trade team is set up to provide agents with whatever they need.” 

Riviera features in two episodes of Channel 5’s Cruising with Susan Calman on 26 January and 2 February sailing the Douro river.