Riviera Travel hosted its sixth agent committee meeting last week to discuss ways to enhance its trade-facing initiatives

The meeting was held on the line’s MS Geoffrey Chaucer, docked in Amsterdam, ahead of the CLIA RiverView conference.

The biannual meeting brought together 17 travel agent partners from across the UK, providing a discussion, update and feedback session across Riviera’s trade initiatives, marketing, product development, training, trade incentives and digital tools.

Attendees included representatives from Premier Travel, Art of Travel, Arrange my Escape, Go Cruise and Travel, TTNG, Hays Travel and Barrhead Travel and first-time representatives from Travel Counsellors, Inteletravel, Designer Travel, IGLU and TUI.

Insights shared during the meeting will help inform Riviera’s ongoing enhancements across its river cruise and touring portfolio, alongside continuous improvement for trade service and agent-facing platforms.

Vicky Billing, director of trade and partnerships UK & Ireland at Riviera Travel, said: “It was incredibly valuable for us to bring our agent committee members together in our own Riviera environment and show them the product we’re proud to deliver to them and their customers.

“These meetings are about honest, two-way conversation and accountability and the feedback we received in Amsterdam will directly influence how we continue to support and work with our trade partners going forward. Hosting the meeting ahead of CLIA felt fitting for us to say thank you to our fabulous agents for their continued commitment and collaboration.”

The committee discussed new product launches, digital agent tools, welcome home messaging and incentives, fam trips and new ways of working with agent partners in the future.

Jonny Peat, director of cruise at Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “My first time at the Agent Committee Meeting, and what’s clear to see is that feedback from agents is not only welcomed but also acted upon. Escorted tours and river cruises are rapidly growing in popularity and it’s great to see the intent is to grow at scale, through travel agents. Thank you Riviera for your ongoing support to our members.”