Trevor Dupont to take early retirement

Cunard and P&O Cruises senior business manager Trevor Dupont will be taking early retirement at the end of February 2017 after 39 years with the business.

Dupont joined P&O in 1977, when he was just 16 years old.

"When I first started at P&O Cruises we had two ships and no computers or internet and I had a full head of hair," he said.

"I’m extremely proud to have been a part of the brands’ growth and development to the thriving companies they are today."

In his early career, Dupont managed the P&O reservations department and spearheaded the company’s move from London to Southampton.

He also played a key sales role as the company was demerged from the P&O group in 2000, before it joined with Carnival Corporation in 2003 to form Carnival Corporation & plc.

Dupont went on to lead the sales operation for the Ocean Village brand and help create a new multi-brand sales department selling P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard and Ocean Village.

He added: "After nearly four decades here, I’ve seen a huge amount of change in the industry, as well as in our ways of working."

"I will leave with some fantastic memories, in particular the people I have met and worked with. I thank them all and I am sure I will meet many of them on board as I sail through my retirement."

Carnival UK chairman David Dingle, who joined the company a year after Dupont, said: "Trevor has been a great colleague, and more importantly a close friend, throughout our careers together.

"He is eternally cheerful, enormous fun to be with and an outstanding people person. Like his father before him, he is a P&O lifer, an incredibly loyal company man. Throughout his long career he has been a great friend of the travel agent community and has been our continuity with the trade over four decades.

"All of us, both within and beyond Carnival, who have had the pleasure of working with Trevor owe him enormous gratitude, and we wish him a wonderful retirement."

Carnival UK VP sales Alex White added: "We will be incredibly sorry to see Trevor leave the company. He is a well known and much loved figure in the cruise industry and has been a great asset to Carnival UK for many years.

"Trevor’s knowledge and experience of the travel trade has been invaluable, both cementing strong relationships with many of our travel agent partners and leading a successful team.

"I would personally like to thank Trevor for the outstanding contribution he has made to our business and I have no doubt there will be several celebrations and opportunities to reminisce."