Former Virgin Voyages Head of Sales John Diorio Lands New Role at Celestyal

Former head of sales for Virgin Voyages John Diorio has a new role.

Diorio is joining Celestyal Cruises as its new vice president and managing director for North America. In the role, he will be tasked with executing Celestyal’s strategic business plan for the North American market, including launching the cruise line’s advisor engagement strategy. He will report directly to Lee Haslett, chief commercial officer at Celestyal.

“I’m incredibly excited to join Celestyal at this pivotal time of growth and partnership expansion. I look forward to collaborating with such a dynamic and talented team as we work together to achieve our shared goals and build on the company’s remarkable success with the travel advisor community in North America,” Diorio said.

Diorio spent six years at Virgin. He first joined the line as director of sales, U.S. and western Canada, and moved up the ranks, reaching vice president of sales for North America in 2022. Virgin announced Diorio would depart in early March and told TMR shortly after that it wouldn’t rush to replace the executive.

Since then, Virgin annouced a reorganizing of its trade-focused sales structure with the hiring of Koreen McNutt as vice president of agency and business development.