WHY IT RATES: Carnival Cruise Line has been a sales innovator, and the brand will continue to make strides with Perez in his new position. — Jason Leppert, Cruise Senior Writer

Adolfo Perez, a 36-year veteran of Carnival Cruise Line, is the new senior vice president of sales and trade marketing.

Perez has been serving as vice president of sales and trade marketing since 2015. Under his leadership, Carnival has rolled out several successful initiatives and programs to reinvigorate and fortify relationships with travel agents and reestablished partnerships with various associations. In his new role, Perez will continue to be responsible for Carnival’s business development teams and trade marketing functions in the U.S., Canada and international markets, reporting to Ken Tate, who has been promoted to executive vice president & chief commercial officer.

“Adolfo has been critical to driving growth in our travel agent business, both domestically and internationally, and we want to recognize the success of his leadership and the efforts of his team and the results they have delivered,” said Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy. “We greatly value our relationship with our travel agent partners and all of us at Carnival are committed to continuing to work hard to develop innovative and beneficial programs to support them.”

Perez joined Carnival in 1982 as an embarkation agent and has held multiple managerial positions within the company’s sales and reservations departments over the past three and a half decades, including vice president of reservations sales, overseeing the line’s reservations contact centers where he developed many relationships within the travel agent community. Prior to joining Sales & Trade Marketing, he launched the company’s international sales and marketing office in London and upon his return to the U.S., served as the company’s vice president of new markets and product marketing.

“Working with the sales and trade marketing team for the past two and a half years has been an incredibly rewarding experience and I look forward to forging ahead with even more initiatives in the next phase of this role,” said Perez. “From Agentpalooza to our popular ‘Travel Agents Rock’ program, it’s been gratifying to see the relationship with our valued travel partners grow stronger and this is just the beginning.”

A resident of Miami Beach, Fla., Perez earned a master’s degree in business administration from Florida International University in Miami, as well as a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) designation from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA).

Source: Carnival Cruise Line press release