MIAMI — Norwegian Cruise Line is making good on its commitment to the Canadian market with the appointment of an expanded sales team.
The new Canadian team will be led by industry veteran Dana Gain, who has been appointed National Director for Sales, overseeing all aspects of Norwegian’s sales strategy in Canada. She was most recently as director of international sales for Carnival Cruise Line.
Gain will lead a team of six business development managers “dedicated to aggressively growing the number of guests sourced from the Canadian market and expanding the agency base partnering with Norwegian Cruise Line”.
“We are ready to build closer, more effective partnerships with our travel partners across Canada and share the exciting marketing tools and training available for agent’s to grow their business,” she said.
The six BDMs are Mary-Jo Cutaia (Western Ontario); Ian Smyth (Eastern Ontario); Ramon Jacinto (Western Canada); Sabrina Greca, (strategic accounts); Alexandre Bergeron (Quebec); and Ilanit Zimmermann (Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Maritimes).
Cutaia is a 20-plus year NCL veteran. Jacinto joined NCL in 2013. Greca was previously NCL’s BDM for Quebec and in her new role will develop and grow the cruise line’s partnerships with Canadian tour operators and wholesalers.
Smyth joins NCL from WestJet and WestJet Vacations, where he spent the last eight years as a sales representative. Bergeron joins NCL from Transat Holidays, where he earned a nomination for ‘BDM of the Year’ in Quebec. Zimmermann has worked at hotels, tour companies and cruise lines for the 12 years and will be based in Miami.
NCL’s move is part of its substantial expansion to its North American sales team, developed to promote the long-term success of its travel agent partners and building on ‘Partners First’. Partners First was launched in 2011 with a US$16 million investment in the retail booking channel. More information is available at norwegiancentral.com.
“Part of our brand promise is ‘Partners First,’ which is simply our commitment to invest in our agency partners’ success, be easy to do business with, and listen to our partners and take action. Today, I’m happy to say that our ‘Partners First’ philosophy is also ‘Canada First’,” said Andy Stuart, NCL’s President and COO.
“Canada is a primary growth market for Norwegian and the significant expansion of our sales team shows that we are serious about investing in our Canadian partners,” added Nathan Hickman, Norwegian’s VP Field Sales.
