CLIA hires meetings/events veteran as vp trade relations

Sylvia will be the primary liaison for CLIA’s Diamond and Gold Premium travel agency members, the largest travel agencies, hosts and consortia, and the sales and trade relations executives at CLIA member cruise lines. Additionally, he is to drive continued enhancement of the agent professional development and certification programs.

Sylvia has more than 20 years of experience in cruise marketing and sales and has worked as a travel agent. Most recently, he held a leadership role in client services at Access TCA, a global exhibit, meetings and events agency based in Boston. At Access TCA, he built and managed their corporate events at sea portfolio, and led a team of meeting planners to customize meetings, incentives, conferences and events aboard cruise ships.

'Charlie will be a strong addition to the CLIA team. He has an extensive understanding of the travel agent and agency community as well as the cruise industry,' D’Aoust said. She added that his first 90 days will be focused on meeting and engaging with key travel agency and agent partners.

For his part, Sylvia said CLIA’s new travel agency and agent membership program offers a powerful value proposition and he looks forward to working with agencies and agents to 'help them maximize the incentives and benefits the program delivers.'

Sylvia has a home-based office in Rhode Island but will be traveling often to CLIA headquarters in Washington, DC, and across the country to visit agencies.