Cruise Product & Commercial Manager

dnata; Preston; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading travel company is seeking a Cruise Product & Commercial Manager to enhance their cruise offerings. This role involves defining product strategies, negotiating contracts, and leveraging supplier relationships. The ideal candidate will have extensive cruise experience and strong negotiation skills, contributing to the growth of ocean, luxury, river, and expedition cruise products.

Benefits

25 days annual leave, increasing to 28 after 5 years

Company pension scheme

Private medical cover

Employee Assistance Programme

Travel discounts

Cycle to work scheme

Casual dress code

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in a similar role with strong knowledge of ocean, river, and expedition cruise products.
• Existing strong relationships with cruise suppliers.
• Thorough understanding of hotel contracts.

Responsibilities

• Define, deliver, and drive the cruise product strategy.
• Negotiate market-leading contracts to meet commercial targets.
• Collaborate with Sales Managers to review performance and provide insights.

Skills

Negotiation skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Job description

dnata Travel Group B2B is the UK’s largest B2B-only tour operator, comprising the flagship brand Gold Medal and three specialist brands – Pure Luxury, Cruise Plus, and Incredible Journeys. We pride ourselves on our ‘agents-first’ approach and our strong, mutually beneficial relationships with a wide range of industry supplier partners. We are part of the Emirates group.

As cruising becomes increasingly popular with more ships entering the market, we are expanding our Cruise product team to meet customer demand. We are currently recruiting an experienced Cruise Product & Commercial Manager to support the growth of our Ocean, Luxury, River, and Expedition cruise offerings.

This role involves championing our cruise product, managing trading performance, and defining and executing our cruise strategy and business plans. You will leverage your existing supplier relationships to negotiate contracts, market-leading offers, and commercial overrides.

This position can be based at our Leyland (Lancashire) office, hybrid, or home-based within the UK, depending on experience.

UK and overseas travel will be required for trade shows and product/sales familiarisation visits.

Key Tasks

1. Define, deliver, and drive the cruise product strategy.
2. Negotiate market-leading contracts to meet commercial targets, including product revenue growth, conversion, and overrides.
3. Select cruise products for brochures, marketing campaigns, and tactical offers.
4. Calculate competitive prices.
5. Ensure product data is loaded correctly into systems, represented accurately in brochures, and available for sale.
6. Collaborate with Sales Managers to review performance, trading conditions, targets, and budgets. Provide weekly trading reviews, campaign, and brochure performance insights.
7. Organise, chair, and review cruise planning meetings.
8. Utilise your cruise industry knowledge to enhance cruise product and industry understanding across the business.

Candidate Requirements

• Extensive experience in a similar role with strong knowledge of ocean, river, and expedition cruise products.
• Existing strong relationships with cruise suppliers.
• Proven negotiation skills and experience in contracting cruise products.
• Thorough understanding of hotel contracts.
• High attention to detail and accuracy in documentation.
• Excellent communication skills for building and maintaining supplier and stakeholder relationships.
• Product merchandising experience.
• Strong analytical skills and commercial acumen.
• Highly organised with the ability to manage a fast-paced workload.
• People management experience is advantageous.

For more information, please click on the job description below.

Benefits

Our Leyland office is conveniently located near junctions 28 & 29 of the M6. We offer excellent benefits, including:

• 25 days annual leave, increasing to 28 days after 5 years, plus bank holidays.
• Additional annual leave purchase scheme.
• Company pension scheme.
• Life assurance.
• Private medical cover.
• Low-cost healthcare for family.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Mental Health First Aiders.
• Ongoing development with our in-house People Development Team.
• Travel discounts through our dedicated Staff Travel Team.
• Industry and social events, including supplier events and office socials.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Long service awards and reward programs.
• Belong Employee Resource Groups supporting our DEI strategy.
• Volunteer days – one paid day annually for charity work.
• dnata4good community support initiatives.
• Refer a friend scheme.
• Free eye care tests.
• Discounts with Taste Card.
• Casual dress code, free tea and coffee, subsidised on-site restaurant, free Wi-Fi, and parking.