the hotlist editor’s welcome
Welcome to The Hotlist 2025, your guide to the trade’s top brands across ocean, river and expedition cruise, as well as the touring and adventure sectors. It’s the best barometer of the brands you and your clients trust to deliver the ultimate holiday, whether you’re looking for a family-friendly sailing in the Med, a penguin-packed voyage to the Antarctic or a solo adventure around southeast Asia. This year, we’ve added new categories to recognise the best cruise lines for fitness and wellness, small-ship cruising and warm-water expeditions, as well as the top performers for active and adventure tours and culture or history-focused itineraries. We’re grateful for the support of our headline sponsor, Virgin Atlantic, and our trade partners, Clia and Atas (Association of Touring & Adventure Suppliers) for their assistance in inviting a broad cross-section of frontline sellers to cast their votes. Thanks also to the hundreds of agents who filled in the survey. It’s incredibly encouraging to see the breadth of support and the positive comments given by respondents. Read on to find out which brands made the shortlists and see where your favourite suppliers ranked.
headline partner
Katie McGonagle, editor, The Hotlist 2025
Counting your votes The Hotlist results were drawn from a survey hosted on
travelweekly.co.uk between March 5-April 11, 2025, asking for agents’ favourite brands across 30 categories in the ocean cruise, river cruise and touring and adventure sectors. The survey attracted 5,811 votes from registered frontline travel sellers. Travel Weekly would like to thank all UK agents who took part and industry partners Clia and Atas for their support.
We’re delighted to be working with Travel Weekly on the annual Hotlist survey. It’s incredibly valuable for us to get this first-hand information to understand what frontline agents are booking and what’s proving popular with their customers. Cruise and touring holidays are focus markets for us, and both are growing sectors well served by our extensive route network throughout the US, Caribbean and beyond. Between Virgin Atlantic and our partner, Delta Air Lines, we offer 43 daily non-stop flights across the Atlantic from Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh to more than 220 destinations across North America. From major cruise ports such as Miami and Orlando to west coast wonders such as Seattle, San Francisco and LA – not to mention New York and Tampa. We know customers who book holidays seek seamless premium travel experiences on the ground and in the air – a perfect match for Virgin Atlantic and our ethos to provide brilliant experiences. We work closely with our cruise, touring and adventure operator partners, ensuring their customers are taken care of on board and reach their destination smoothly. We wish all suppliers the best of luck.
Nicki Goldsmith, director of global agency sales
The Hotlist 2025 is published by Travel Weekly Group, Third Floor, 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0AU. Tel: 020 7881 4857
Head of features and supplements Katie McGonagle Deputy features editor Alice Barnes-Brown Contributing writers Jane Archer, Samantha Mayling, Ella Sagar Art director Flora Ioannou Senior designer Paul McLaughlin Designer Amy Mallabar Chief subeditor Mike Walsh Deputy chief subeditor Stephanie Krahn Travel Weekly Group editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley Managing editor Robin Searle UK sales manager David Ramsden
Production manager Nick Cripps UK chief executive Stu Parish Printed by Manson Press ©Travel Weekly Group 2025 PART OF JACOBS MEDIA
FRONT COVER: Royal Caribbean International; AmaWaterways; G Adventures/Shereen Mroueh PAGE TWO: G Adventures; On Location Events; Steve Dunlop 2 June 2025
travelweekly.co.uk
Katie
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