WHY IT RATES: Cris De Souza will bring decades of experience working with Royal Caribbean and AmaWaterways to Windstar Cruises. – Lacey Pfalz, Associate Writer, TravelPulse
US headquartered Windstar Cruises has hired Cristienne (Cris) De Souza as the small ship cruise line’s director of revenue planning.
The new position reports to Windstar’s Vice President of Revenue and Itinerary Planning Kristin Badgett and is based in Miami, Florida – Windstar’s official new headquarters beginning June of 2022.
De Souza will work with Badgett to determine strategy and implement pricing for the Windstar fleet, including all six yachts. She will collaborate closely with Windstar’s parent company, Xanterra Travel Collection, to review strategies for achieving optimal pricing on all of Windstar’s itineraries and for all on-board amenities. She also will assist with analytics and recommendations on new deployment for future Windstar sailing destinations and offerings.
Most recently De Souza was head of business development at Advance Your Reach, a company that helps people grow their businesses and spread their message through stages. Before that, she was vice president of sales and marketing at Nexion Travel Group. Other notable positions/employers throughout their career include director of national account sales and marketing at Ama Waterways; 14 years at Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd, including roles as director of national accounts for Celebrity and Azamara and senior revenue management analyst; and a financial analyst with Coca-Cola Enterprises.
De Souza holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree of business administration from Florida Atlantic University, as well as a master of liberal arts in sustainability and environmental management from Harvard University. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is a three-time national barefoot waterski champion who was once ranked 8th in the world. Her Windstar colleagues can’t wait to see her waterski as part of the line’s unique activities available on the yachts’ Watersports Platform.
For more details on Windstar Cruises, visit www.windstarcruises.com.
SOURCE: Windstar Cruises press release.
