The line’s vice president of international sales, Shane Riley, announced the plans to grow the brand’s sales team onboard Valiant Lady on Saturday (8 October) during The Advantage Travel Partnership’s Back on the Water 2022 cruise conference.
"We want to use this drive as a way to bring talent back to the industry, those people who have moved away from travel, as they are the experts," he explained.
"We will also be targeting people who currently work in the industry but may want a new challenge elsewhere or to grow into a different role. It’s all about retaining that crucial talent we have and bringing some back that was lost in the pandemic."
According to Riley, the move will give each account manager less accounts to work on, freeing them up to spend more time engaging with fewer agents "on a more personal level".
The recruitment drive comes ahead of the launch of Resilient Lady and Brilliant Lady next year, the line’s third and fourth vessels, respectively.
It’s the second time the line has double its sales team, after it increased the size of its operation from four to eight last August.
"These new members will help deliver the new ships through our first mates [agents]. I think our new team of 16 will be enough to get that done," he added.
"The biggest reason for doing this now is that we have so many agents reaching out to us and we want to have enough people available to service that demand.
"Now we have cemented ourselves in the market, people want to work with us. There has definitely been a significant change in the last few years now people know who we are. Agents are beginning to understand there is a place for Virgin Voyages in their portfolio."
The move comes after Virgin Voyages launched a new online trade platform, called LetsGoBook, which offers agents a more "streamlined interface" with a "simpler, intuitive system" to "take the friction" out of the booking process.
