Virgin Voyages plans to double its sales team next year ahead of the delivery of two new ships.

The cruise line announced plans to take its sales team from eight to 16 which is said will give each staff member fewer accounts to work on so they can spend more time engaging with agents to help boost sales.

This will be the second time in two years the line has doubled its sales team, having gone from four to eight in 2021.

Shane Riley, vice president of global sales, said he hopes to hire people who previously worked in travel and want to return to the industry.

“We want to use these roles to bring talent back into the industry as the UK market is huge and we want the right people.

“We have two ships launching next year so it is important to provide more specialism in the team, have more field-based people and more account managers so each can have fewer accounts and, therefore, more time focusing on each one.

“Some of the new team members will be responsible for markets outside of the UK, but we will still have a lot of people to support the trade.”

Riley went on to say agents, referred to as first mates, are fundamental for the business and growing the sales team will give additional support to the increasing number of agents interested in selling Virgin Voyages itineraries.

“Agents are really beginning to understand who are are and know there is a place for Virgin Voyages in their portfolio,” he said. “We have had so many agents reaching out to us and we need to make sure we can service them.

“Agents have the faith and trust in us to send us their clients so we want to support them.”