Virgin Voyages announced it has become the first major cruise company to deploy AI-powered marketing tools at scale through a strategic partnership with Canva, a visual communication platform.
“Travel advisors are the heart of Virgin Voyages’ success story,” said Nirmal Saverimuttu, CEO of Virgin Voyages.
“Our First Mates (travel advisors) don’t just sell cruises; they’re brand ambassadors who bring our vision to life for Sailors every single day. This partnership with Canva is about investing in their success and giving them the tools they deserve to grow their businesses alongside ours. When our First Mates win, Virgin Voyages wins,” added Saverimuttu.
The company said in a press release that its partnership with Canva provides First Mates with an AI-powered platform designed to automate content creation, accelerate time-to-market, and drive measurable increases in bookings.
This marks the first phase of Virgin’s strategic rollout of intelligent tools to revolutionize the travel advisor experience.
“Together, Canva and Virgin Voyages are demonstrating how empowering everyone with intuitive and powerful design tools can unlock creativity, strengthen brand presence and accelerate results across teams,” said Mark Rupert, Americas GM and VP of sales at Canva.
“Virgin Voyages understands that modern organizations need an AI-powered platform that brings everything together in one place. By equipping their entire advisor network with professional design capabilities, they’re scaling their brand with confidence while helping advisors move faster and communicate more clearly,” added Rupert.
Launched in November, 100 First Mates were invited to join a four-week journey to master Canva.
First Mates can now create and customize flyers, social media posts, destination content and booking materials featuring Virgin’s brand kit, including fonts, logos, color palettes, offer lock-ups and signature “With Love From” stamps.
“We’re creating the cruise industry’s first AI-amplified sales force,” said Billy Bohan Chinique, AI evangelist and head of global brand marketing at Virgin Voyages.
Looking ahead, Virgin added that it plans to leverage Canva’s AI-powered tools to scale personalized, on-brand content creation further while supporting its strategy to equip a distributed sales network to market autonomously and drive growth.
Following Phase 1, the company plans to expand the Canva program to 1,000 First Mates in Q1 2026.
