Release Date: August 26,2009

MIAMI, August 26, 2009----The over 6,000 luxury travel advisors who make up the prestigious Virtuoso Travel Network have selected The Yachts of Seabourn as the Best Small-Ship Cruise Line for the second consecutive year. The 2009 repeat award was presented on August 20 at an awards dinner during the consortium’s annual Travel Mart in Las Vegas.
“This honor from the Virtuoso advisors really does have a special significance for us,” said Pamela C. Conover, Seabourn’s president and CEO, “because it represents the unique relationship we share with our professional partners. In a way, nobody knows our company better than do professionals like the Virtuoso advisors, who recommend us to their clients and put their own reputations on the line along with ours,” she continued. “When they tell us we’re the best, it truly means a lot.”
“We always appreciate and highly respect our advisors’ picks for Virtuoso’s annual Peer-to-Peer awards,” said Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch, CTC. “The Yachts of Seabourn was awarded this top honor for a reason: They deliver innovation and top quality products as evidenced by the new Seabourn Odyssey. The Network shares this high level of excitement as shown by sailings with each more than 100 guests during the inaugural year and maiden world cruise. On behalf of Virtuoso, I congratulate the entire Seabourn team for their achievement.”
Since Seabourn won last year’s Virtuoso award, the company’s fleet of intimate, all-suite vessels have gone on to garner the top spot in the small-ship category in the 2008 Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Poll and to be voted the World’s Best Small Ship Cruise Line in Travel + Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards. During that same interval, Seabourn launched the 225-suite Seabourn Odyssey, the first new ultra luxury vessel to debut in over six years, which has been hailed as “a game-changer” for the luxury cruising segment. A second new vessel, Seabourn Sojourn, will debut in 2010 and another yet-to-be-named sister in 2011.
Virtuoso advisors have been expanding their client bases in 2009, adding travelers who are taking advantage of the most attractive pricing in decades for luxury cruises. Seabourn’s Yachting Collection Savings, offering savings of up to 65 percent off brochure fares for most 2009 and 2010 voyages have, along with the exciting new vessels, drawn many younger, first-time luxury cruise guests into the segment. Given the extremely high rate at which travelers return to Seabourn’s intimate yachts, this bodes well for the future of both the line and its partners in the agency community.
For information on The Yachts of Seabourn, contact a professional travel agent, call Seabourn at 1-800-929-9391 or visit www.seabourn.com . Seabourn maintans its own blog at Seabourn.com/blog and can also be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

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