Carnival Cruise Lines named two retailers its "Travel Agencies of the Year" for 2009 -- World Travel Holdings and Expedia CruiseShipCenters.
They were selected, Carnival said, from more than 30,000 cruise-selling agencies in the U.S. and Canada.
Boston-based World Travel Holdings, co-founded by Brad and Jeff Tolkin in 2005, owns and/or operates several cruise websites, including Cruise411.com, CruisesOnly.com, Cruises.com, as well as CruiseOne and Cruises Inc.
Established in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1987, Expedia CruiseShipCenters operates 116 retail locations in Canada, markets a franchise model in the U.S. and has a home-based agency network of some 2,600 cruise consultants.
Joni Rein, Carnival vice president-worldwide sales, said the two winners, "while equally deserving candidates, follow distinctly different business models."
But they both show "commitment to innovation and superior service provided to their clients. Because of this, both companies reported record Carnival bookings for the past year," said Rein.
An earlier version of this story indicated that only Expedia CruiseShipCenters had been named Travel Agency of the Year.