Virgin Voyages' SJ Walker promises agents: 'We'll fix the choppy pricing'

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Walker: 'Giving the trade that first-hand experience is second to none' (Credit: Virgin Voyages)

Virgin Voyages is finally achieving the kind of success it’s been striving for since its launch during the early stages of the pandemic.

Its current fleet, comprising Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady and Resilient Lady, entered service across a short 18-month window as the world learnt to live in the Covid maelstrom.

During that tumultuous period, Virgin Voyages had to find its place in the market and build brand awareness, all while trying to fill its vessels. No mean feat.

UK sales director SJ Walker, speaking exclusively to TTG, argues the line surpassed its own lofty expectations in 2024. “We sold three ships and we sailed mostly full,” she says. “Our Med season sailed at capacity.”

Virgin Voyages followed this up with a series of record booking days in the UK and other global markets.

Walker puts these recent successes down to “opening up more deployment”. “We’re opening up two years out for the first time ever,” she explains, nodding to the trade. “It means we can educate our agents about what is to come.”

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Walker also believes Virgin Voyages’ decision to host thousands of agents on fam sailings in 2024 “really paid off” and ultimately helped the line fulfil its goals. “We’ve been in the fortunate position of being able to release some capacity to the trade,” she says.

“Giving the trade that first-hand experience is second to none. It’s turned out to be an incredible investment – agents are coming onboard and then recommending us to their customers. It was the right thing to do. Our [customer] repeat rate is so high.”

Of course, Virgin Voyages can’t keep giving out cabins to agents at scale if it’s going to return a hefty profit. A “more strategic” fam programme is in the works. “One success in 2024 was how we managed to reach various different levels of the trade,” Walker explains.

“In 2025, we’ll still invest in fam trips, but we will look to do it in a much more strategic manner. We will work with cruise conferences and management conferences, and give away places to the trade at these kinds of events.”

Simple pricing message

Another area where Virgin Voyages is trying to offer agents more stability is pricing. The day before TTG sits down with Walker in December 2024, the line went live with a new pricing model.

Walker believes the line has, in the past, been too reliant on dynamic pricing, resulting in agents struggling with “choppy” pricing for each regional deployment.

“We’re moving towards common pricing by itinerary,” Walker says. “For example, if we have four 11-night itineraries from Athens, the price is similar across each of the four departures, regardless of what date they sail.”

The trade currently drives around 70% of Virgin Voyages’ business so it seems only fair agents are front of mind when Virgin Voyages decides which model to adopt.

“The new pricing structure makes life a lot easier for our partners,” Walker insists. “We can’t be too proud not to own some of the mistakes that we made in the past.”

However, she adds: “We’ll still be dynamic to a certain extent, but it’s about being easier to do business with to help agents package up our holidays.”

2025 trade plans

Virgin Voyages parted with international sales vice-president Shane Lewis-Riley in September after six years, with Walker – whom he brought into the business in 2019 – taking over as the line’s UK sales lead.

So how does she plan to engage agents to seize on potential growth opportunities in 2025?

Firstly, she hopes to recruit more sales staff this year. “The headcount will change, although I think we’ve got a really successful structure currently,” Walker explains.

“However, it would be nice to have more support within that sales structure. We’ll look at more investment as we widen our trade distribution as well.”

Brilliant Lady is due to enter service in September

Lewis-Riley leaves a legacy, and Walker is well aware of the crucial role her former boss played in helping launch Virgin Voyages, but she is understandably keen to forge her own path now she heads up the line’s UK sales operation.

“Shane was instrumental in building those foundations of Virgin Voyages and the international sales team,” she says. “We wish him well on his new adventure. He has got new opportunities and new challenges.”

Kid-free travel boom

Walker not only believes Virgin Voyages is an attractive brand for agents to sell right now, she insists the line is well placed to maintain its growth trajectory in partnership with the trade.

A recent US survey revealed that, with birth rates plummeting across the western world, the adults-only travel sector is set to triple in size.

Unsurprisingly, Virgin Voyages has no plans to welcome families onto any of its ships any time soon, including the soon-to-launch Brilliant Lady, which will break cover in August this year.

“There’s a higher proportion of kid-free households than in the past, which means adults-only travel is going to expand,” Walker insists.

Walker insists the line's adults-only focus is paying dividends (Credit: Virgin Voyages)

She continues: “The anticipated revenue driven by adults-only holidaying is going to triple in the next few years – we want Virgin Voyages to be really considered within that [adults-only] customer pool.

“We also want agents to push us when they get an adults-only enquiry. With the trade, we’ll continue to talk about the benefits of kid-free travel, and the fact our ships are built around that.”

When Virgin Voyages launched in 2020, the world wasn’t quite ready for an adults-only line keen to rip up the cruise rulebook. Now, some five years later, the world finally seems to be catching up with this cutting-edge brand.