MIAMI — Carnival Cruise Lines has honoured 15 top travel agencies in the U.S. and Canada with the newly created ‘Excellence Awards’ including two from Canada.

Agencies were selected by Carnival’s sales team for their innovative marketing techniques, brand advocacy and sales success strategies.

“We created the Excellence Awards as a way to celebrate the many success stories we hear of travel agencies that are building incredible business practices through new and innovative methods,” said Joni Rein, vice president of worldwide sales for Carnival Cruise Lines. “Rather than solely reward sales results, we wanted to highlight agencies who are showing growth through unique success strategies, as well.”

A Carnival sales leadership panel, led by Rein, evaluated all submissions from the sales field to select 15 Excellence Awards recipients based on the nominees’ strengths in each category. Winners will attend an Excellence Awards celebration in Miami on Oct. 2, 2014. Attending travel agency representatives will receive complimentary airfare to Miami for the event, hotel accommodations, a meet and greet with top Carnival executives and a gala awards reception.

Agencies receiving a 2014 Excellence Award include Expedia CruiseShipCenters Scarborough East (Scarborough, ON) andExpression Voyages (Magog, QC).

Additional information regarding the awards is available on the line’s travel agent Internet portal, GoCCL.com.