European River Cruise Director

We are currently recruiting for our River Cruise programme for 2014, and are looking for enthusiastic people with an exceptional standard of customer service to commit for a large part of the 2014 season.

Riviera Travel entered the river cruising market five years ago and we have experienced extremely heavy growth in this area when compared with other programs. For 2013 we commissioned our own ship, MS Lord Byron, and we are excited to be adding another ship for 2014 (MS William Shakespeare), in addition to the four and five star vessels we currently charter.

Our clients expect a high level of service on our cruises, and we aim to be the best cruise operator on the European waterways, so we are looking for enthusiastic Cruise Directors and Tour Managers who work well in a team, both alongside each other and with the ship’s crew.

We will be running seven ships in 2014 at various times through the year, starting in April and finishing in November. To each ship we allocate a Cruise Director who it is envisaged will spend periods of 3 – 4 weeks at a time on the ship, with a break after each assignment of a similar length of time.

Areas of a Cruise Director’s responsibility:

• Co-ordination of timetables and schedules of meals and excursions, liaising between our operations team and the ship’s crew
• Dealing with any operational issues that arise and ensuring the program runs as advertised and in liaison with head office staff
• Producing daily program sheets, notices and client letters
• Presenting welcome and disembarkation briefings to clients
•  Responsible for guest relations and entertainment on board
• Doing airport and rail transfers on changeover day

Cruise Directors must be familiar with MS Office.

In addition, we also allocate a Tour Manager to each ship, and they may work anything from one week to three weeks at a time.

Areas of a Tour Manager’s responsibility:

• Accompanying excursions
• Providing onboard commentaries whilst cruising.
• Giving daily powerpoint presentations to clients on the destinations
• Accompanying airport and rail transfers on changeover day
• Dealing professionally with any operational issues that may arise, and following company guidelines

Presentations are provided by the Riviera office, but Tour Managers should have good public speaking skills and experience in leading groups.

For both roles we are looking for people who are calm, friendly, hard working and enjoy engaging and chatting with clients. Successful candidates will have the ability to work well as part of a team as well as using their own initiative and good organisational skills are essential to ensure the smooth running of all itineraries. Experience in a similar position, especially on ships, is an advantage.

Our company ethos is to provide excellent value holidays and cruises with a good mix of free time and included visits. Our clients are generally middle-aged to retired and are often ex-professional people who are very interested in the cultural, historical and social aspects of the countries they are visiting. Our aim is to match them up with Cruise Directors and Tour Managers who have a genuine enthusiasm for the countries they visit, and who really enjoy sharing their knowledge and looking after people. The ability to speak German and/or French is also an asset.

If you can see yourself in either of these roles and are willing to commit to a busy programme in 2014, we would like to hear from you. Please download and fill in the application form and send with your CV and a recent photograph to either hidden link - please login or by post to:

Riviera Travel Operations
New Manor
328 Wetmore Road
Burton on Trent
DE14 1SP

Please quote the ref: “River Cruise” in the subject of the email or on the top of your application form if you are sending by post.