Friday, January 31, 2014

CLIA Appoints Trade Relations VP

By Mark Edward Nero

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) on Jan. 30 announced the appointment of travel industry veteran Dwain Wall to the newly-created position of Senior Vice President of Agency and Trade Relations, effective immediately.

In his new role, Wall is at the helm of member and trade relations for the North American travel agencies that comprise CLIA, the largest travel agent association in the world.

Most recently, Wall was Senior Vice President and General Manager of World Travel Holdings’ home-based division, which is comprised of the CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. brands. He resigned from that position in November 2013 after holding the job for five years.

Prior to joining World Travel Holdings, he co-founded the global luxury and adventure travel company Grand Expeditions and helped develop national affiliate programs for Hotels.com.

“His track record of developing and implementing highly successful travel agent programs is a great fit for CLIA as we enhance our value to the agent community and grow our membership base,” CLIA President & CEO Christine Duffy said in a statement. “And, by creating a dedicated trade relations position, CLIA is once again reinforcing its total commitment to our travel agency members.”

As part of CLIA’s leadership team, Wall will work alongside CLIA’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Margaret Murphy.

“In this new position, I look forward to creating a dialog across various segments of the industry about what our future looks like,” Wall said. “Ultimately, my goal is to help member agencies be more successful, profitable and dynamic while staying ahead of the game as the industry continues to evolve.”