Virgin Voyages Won’t Rush to Replace John Diorio
by Daniel McCarthy
Brilliant Lady. Photo: Virgin Voyages
About a month after Virgin Voyages’ head of sales for North America, John Diorio, departed the cruise line, there are no plans to bring new leadership into Virgin’s sales team just yet.
That’s according to Virgin Voyages CEO Nirmal Saverimuttu, who was in New York last week as part of Virgin’s celebration of Brilliant Lady, its fourth cruise ship, which will arrive in the Big Apple in September 2025.
Saverimuttu spoke to Travel Market Report at the brand’s Manhattan hotel and said that while there has been some movement inside the sales team since Diorio left—including the company’s chief marketing officer, Nathan Rosenberg, taking a more active role—there are no major changes coming.
“We’re working through the evolution of what the sales team will look like,” Saverimuttu told TMR. “We have a fantastic field sales team, and we have very vocal advisors. A lot of people are very passionate about this brand. We’ll work with that passion and evolve the sales structure going forward.”
Saverimuttu added that Diorio built a “formidable sales team and a formidable sales structure” that is working—Virgin just had its best Wave season ever, with 34% growth in bookings and 45% growth in revenue. Web traffic, one measure of brand awareness, has skyrocketed.
“Look at the results. The results speak for themselves,” Saverimuttu said, adding that while the sales team is important, the biggest champions of the brand—travel advisors—have become the “key part of our success.”
“We wouldn’t be the brand we are today if it hadn’t been for advisors,” he said.
The brand has grown and will keep growing—Brilliant Lady will be its fourth ship and will finally allow Virgin to not only serve the range of destinations its clients want but also offer longer sailing itineraries, including deeper regional cruises.
“We now have a complete destination and itinerary lens, which is something we’ve heard from our advisor community and our repeat customers,” Saverimuttu said.
The bottom line for Virgin, he said, is that the cruise line is now the first choice for consumers traveling without kids, and that’s the position it wants to maintain.
“The last year, in particular, was the year it became really obvious that if you’re traveling without kids, then Virgin Voyages is for you. That’s what really propelled us,” he said.
“Most adult-only cruising has been small ship, very high price point. Our experience and our price point are much more approachable.”
