The De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London was once again the venue for Cruise Trade News’ eagerly anticipated annual event, the Cruise Stars Awards.

This time round though the awards took an exciting new direction, celebrating not only emerging talent in the cruise industry and within the travel agent community, but also introducing a raft of regional accolades from Scotland to the Southeast, plus a new-to-cruise category.

Before the awards were presented by CTN editor Colette Doyle and Cruise Challenge host Peter Smith, guests heard from Rob Andrew MBE who was speaking on behalf of charity partner, the Lord’s Taverners.

This is the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity and its charitable objective is to ‘give young people a sporting chance’.

Rob is a former English rugby union player and was, until April 2016, Professional Rugby Director at the RFU and previously the Director of Rugby of Newcastle Falcons.

The audience, comprised of representatives from big-name cruise lines and agencies such as AmaWaterways, Royal Caribbean, Ponders and Barrhead Travel, listened intently as 16 different awards were presented, culminating in the overall cruise line and travel agent stars being named.

Follow our worthy winners in the pages of CTN next year.