Courtesy of Seabourn
The over 6,000 luxury travel advisors who make up the prestigious Virtuoso Travel Network selected The Yachts of Seabourn as the Best Small-Ship Cruise Line for the second consecutive year. The 2009 repeat award was presented on August 20 at an awards dinner during the consortium’s annual Travel Mart in Las Vegas.
“This honor from the Virtuoso advisors really does have a special significance for us,” said Pamela C. Conover, Seabourn’s president and CEO, “because it represents the unique relationship we share with our professional partners. In a way, nobody knows our company better than do professionals like the Virtuoso advisors, who recommend us to their clients and put their own reputations on the line along with ours,” she continued. “When they tell us we’re the best, it truly means a lot.”
“We always appreciate and highly respect our advisors’ picks for Virtuoso’s annual Peer-to-Peer awards,” said Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch, CTC. “The Yachts of Seabourn was awarded this top honor for a reason: They deliver innovation and top quality products as evidenced by the new Seabourn Odyssey. The Network shares this high level of excitement as shown by sailings with each more than 100 guests during the inaugural year and maiden world cruise. On behalf of Virtuoso, I congratulate the entire Seabourn team for their achievement.”
Since Seabourn won last year’s Virtuoso award, the company’s fleet of intimate, all-suite vessels have gone on to garner the top spot in the small-ship category in the 2008 Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Poll and to be voted the World’s Best Small Ship Cruise Line in Travel + Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards. During that same interval, Seabourn launched the 225-suite Seabourn Odyssey, the first new ultra luxury vessel to debut in over six years, which has been hailed as “a game-changer” for the luxury cruising segment. A second new vessel, Seabourn Sojourn, will debut in 2010 and another yet-to-be-named sister in 2011.