Lisa Lutoff-Perlo has been confirmed as a Clia conference speaker.

The announcement comes after the president and chief executive of Celebrity Cruises announced she will step down from her position and take up the new role of vice-chair of external affairs for Royal Caribbean Group from May 1.

Lutoff-Perlo is the second industry leader to be announced as speaking at the conference after Silversea’s Barbara Muckermann.

More than 600 agents are expected to attend this year’s Clia conference, which will take place in Southampton on May 12-14 and has the theme ‘cruise heroes’.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Lutoff-Perlo told Travel Weekly. “As the new vice-chair of external affairs, Clia is one of the groups that I’ll be working very closely with and so this will be a perfect opportunity for me to see all of these great agents in the UK that have done such a great job supporting Celebrity, Jo [Rzymowska] and me.

“It’ll be a nice celebration to be on stage and probably my last opportunity in that type of environment.”

She added: “I always love my trips to the UK.”