Camille Olivere
Camille Olivere spent her first two days as World Travel Holdings’ (WTH) senior vice president for partner brands at the inaugural festivities for the Norwegian Escape in Miami earlier this month. Fresh off the ship, Olivere chatted with News Editor Johanna Jainchill about her new gig and her brief stint as head of sales for Club Med, which she joined in February after six years with Norwegian Cruise Line.
Q: That was a quick tenure at Club Med. Was it not the right fit?
A: I had a fantastic nine months at Club Med. We accomplished a great deal. … I’m a huge fan of the team there, and I have great fondness for the products. I’m going to be spending my Christmas holiday at Punta Cana Club Med. I’m a total fan. … This opportunity just presented itself and was just a great fit. Sometimes things happen, and the timing might not be optimal for everyone. Club Med has a strong sales team; they’re in good hands. They are going to do great things.
Q: Were you able to achieve what you wanted at Club Med?
A: I did. We added several new partners, we reconnected with Vacation.com, the largest consortium, and relaunched some other partnerships; we launched a brand new booking engine. … Now that those things are in place, they just need to continue to build on that, and I’m sure they will. They’ve reconnected with the trade. They’re in a good position. It’s going to be fun to watch them evolve and become even more successful.
Q: What was so right about the position at WTH? Was it getting back to the cruise side?
A: It was several things. I am enjoying being back on the cruise side. Being on the Escape felt very right ... But the opportunity itself allows me to bring together all of my background. I did B2B e-commerce prior to coming into the cruise business. This is a really interesting and unique opportunity for me to pull together my sales background, my cruise background and the e-commerce background with those partner brands. WTH is already a powerhouse in this area: they have almost all of the major airlines, almost all of the major hotel chains and a lot of prominent companies. They’re already a dominant force. But there are lots of opportunities to grow the business and to bring in new business.
Q: How will you do that in your position?
A: WTH is a white- label distributor of cruise through many partners, including most U.S. airlines and hotel brands. That gives us the ability to bring the cruise product to a whole new set of consumers. ... Through the marketing we do in partnership with these companies that we work with, we are putting cruise product front and center to consumers who have potentially never taken a cruise before. When they book their airline tickets, they can now also book a cruise the way they can book a car. It’s a combination of working with their sites, their loyalty programs — there are some creative partnerships with the loyalty programs — and marketing.
Q: When did you and WTH begin discussing this move?
A: It was fairly recently, but truth be told, I’ve always been an admirer of WTH’s culture. … I had a great connection when they were my customer at Norwegian. I spent a great deal of time with the team, and I’ve always really gravitated to their culture. … I have had conversations with them over the years, and this happened to be the right opportunity for both of us to renew our conversation.