30 Under 30: Meet Chloe Palmer

Advancing from apprentice travel agent at her local Cosham Tui store to partnerships development manager at P&O Cruises, Chloe Palmer, 24, had a go-getting attitude from the off.

In 2016, three years after joining Tui, Palmer became retail manager at the Alton branch, heading up a team of five agents. Despite her success there, Palmer yearned for a role to push her out of her comfort zone.

“I was fascinated by the cruise industry, and with Carnival House right on my doorstep in Southampton, I thought I’d explore that avenue,” she says.

Now partnerships development manager at P&O, Palmer is tasked with providing account management support, with an annual revenue responsibility of more than £22 million. She has leveraged her commercial know-how as well as P&O’s sales resources to help her agent partners hit their targets.

However, she admits that working in the cruise industry isn’t always plain sailing.

“Cruise is fast-paced, and each day brings innovations. We have to work to overcome the misconceptions people have about cruising while communicating the experience in a way that gets people excited about trying a cruise holiday. Only a small percentage of holidaymakers have been on a cruise, so there is a huge opportunity to engage with a wider audience,” she says.