Royal Caribbean International’s third round of its trade customer competition, Royal Pitch, came to a close last week with all five finalists receiving financial investment to help make their business ideas a reality.

The competition sees consortia members across the UK and Ireland pitch their concepts to a panel of judges including entrepreneur and Reggae Reggae Sauce creator, Levi Roots, and Royal Caribbean International sales director UK, Ireland & Spain Stuart Byron, to win a portion of £200,000 total investment.

The five recent winners, from Fahy Travel, Delmar World Travel, Club Voyages, All Aboard Ship Ahoy, and Cruise Holidays UK, walked away with a combined total investment of £34,000 for their ideas.

The propositions ranged from in store and on-board events, to community radio station partnerships and content creation.

Byron said: “Round three of the Royal Pitch was competitive, with some strong ideas making it through to the judging stage.

“The other judges and I felt that all the agents who presented to us merited investment at some level and we were impressed by the creativity and originality of the propositions.

“I’m eager to see what the final round of the Royal Pitch brings, now that entries have re-opened. We still have a large share of investment set aside for the top ideas.”

The next round of entries is now open and travel agents have until 30 January to submit their proposals.

The final round of judging will take place over the following weeks.

To enter the competition, agents need to submit a video via the Club Royal website that details their proposal and requested investment in under five minutes.