Mike Julius has been promoted to managing director – U.S. sales, and Justin French managing director – international sales, at Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines.

Julius, a 30-year veteran of the travel industry, including the past 21 years at Carnival, is responsible for all of the cruise lines sales efforts throughout the U.S., overseeing a team of business development managers and directors who work with more than 30,000 trade accounts throughout the country. Julius previously served as Carnival’s vice president of sales for the central region prior to being named to his new position.

As managing director – international sales, French oversees all non-U.S. related trade sales, which is handled by a team of international BDMs who manage sales, marketing, and business relationships with travel partners in 83 different countries. French has been with Carnival since 2003 and previously was the company’s managing director of sales and marketing for Canada.

The promotions of Julius and French round out Carnival’s executive sales team leadership as they join John Diulus who continues as managing director – strategic partnerships responsible for developing synergies and business opportunities for the company’s national travel agent partners and consortia. Diulus has been with Carnival since 2008, having spent the past 14 years working in the travel industry, focusing on areas such as finance, revenue management and sales.

The three managing directors all report to Joni Rein, Carnival’s vice president of worldwide sales.

“Carnival has the most experienced sales team in cruising — with more than 1,000 years of collective cruise industry service. With these new appointments, we’re able to maximize the contributions of our existing personnel while continuing to be a cruise industry innovator and provide the highest level of service to our valued travel agent partners,” said Rein.

Carnival is the most popular cruise line in the world with 22 “Fun Ships” operating voyages from three to 16 days in length to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Europe, Bermuda and the Panama Canal.

The line currently has two new 130,000-ton ships on order – Carnival Magic, set to debut in Europe May 1, 2011, and Carnival Breeze, scheduled to enter service in spring 2012.