Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has announced that Alison Turner, formerly the director for international public relations at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., has been named the association’s new director of marketing communications with responsibility for consumer and travel agent-related marketing communications and media relations. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Turner will report to Margaret Murphy, senior vice president, marketing and trade relations.

“We are delighted to welcome Alison to the CLIA marketing team. She has a vast depth and breadth of senior level communications experience which will be invaluable to CLIA as we expand our marketing communications capabilities,” Murphy said.

Turner’s experience includes external communications, marketing campaigns, branding and identity, public and media relations, crisis communications and social responsibility in a variety of industries as well as financial journalism. Joining Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s international division in the U.K. in 2010, she was responsible for overseeing the company’s international public relations initiatives and campaigns, providing strategic counsel and crisis communications direction to PR colleagues and working to ensure an internationally positive, consistent and accurate presentation of the global vacation cruise company in overseas markets.

Prior to joining CLIA, Turner was an associate director for Deutsche Post World Net’s First Choice program, an organizational development program to leverage employee productivity, and a manager of corporate communications with DHL Express. She also operated her own independent marketing and communications consultancy.

Turner began her career as an investigative reporter for the South Florida Business Journal and as a business reporter for Dow Jones. She then worked for four years as a marketing communications leader with Arthur Andersen L.L.P., during which time she was a member of the company’s crisis communications team in Washington D.C. during the “Enron Crisis”. Later, she joined the law firm Greenberg Traurig as a marketing manager before moving onto DHL Express.

Turner is a MBA graduate from the University of Warwick’s business school and holds a B.S. in communications from Florida International University.