Job Description
Role Purpose
As a Senior Solo Lead at Riviera Travel, you will play a key role in shaping and delivering our exceptional portfolio of tours or cruises whilst focussing on this specialist area. This is an exciting opportunity to combine creativity, commercial acumen, and operational excellence to curate unforgettable travel experiences for our guests. You will become the go-to person within the business for our Solo holidays, working cross-functionally on many aspects of the product.
You will be responsible for managing existing tour products, identifying new opportunities, and ensuring the highest standards of quality and service across all touchpoints. Working collaboratively with internal teams and external suppliers, you will help evolve our product offering in line with customer expectations and market trends—while maintaining a sharp focus on commercial performance and customer satisfaction. Although not currently necessary, you may be required to negotiate contracts with suppliers to meet commercial requirements.
This role is being recruited on a Fixed Term Contract.
Key Responsibilities
* This role is very cross-functional and involves developing effective working relationships with Marketing, Trade, Sales, Operations and the Tour Manager team
* Lead a cross departmental solos taskforce, to develop solo champions in key teams around Riviera
* Be the solo ambassador at Riviera, which may include delivering presentations to travel agents, participating in podcast interviews, delivering Tour Manager training, liaising with the PR team on press releases etc
* Become an expert on Riviera’s solo travellers and understand their motivations and concerns, enabling you to make changes to improve NPS
* Continuously review, refine, and enhance tour itineraries to ensure they remain fresh, engaging, and competitive.
* Collaborate with internal departments to ensure consistent delivery of accommodation, transport, and tour content that meets or exceeds customer expectations.
* Monitor and act on feedback from Tour Managers and guests to resolve quality issues and drive improvements.
* Identify and develop new product opportunities, research and create new tour itineraries in the most cost-effective manner and in line with customer expectations.
* Undertake overseas visits to develop the Solo product and proposition. Follow up on all details on return.
* Support brochure and website content creation by providing detailed tour notes and verifying accuracy of copy for new products.
* Deliver engaging product training to internal teams.
* Build and maintain a strong relationship with our suppliers and ensure the tour experiences and quality standards are maintained.
* Reclaim any necessary compensation from suppliers where relevant issues have been identified.
* Benchmark against competitors and stay informed of market activity to maintain Riviera’s competitive edge.
* Check brochure /web copy for accuracy of tour content and images, ensuring requested changes have been actioned.
* Manage customer service case responses (through Icase system) and ensure timely resolution of supplier-related issues.
* Be flexible and responsive to changing business needs, including occasional overseas travel and out-of-hours support.
* Your focus will be a specialist product category area. As the ambassador for Solo travel your role would include deeper analysis of the market, customer needs, range development, current trading and capacity control, acting on customer feedback and operational issues as well as involvement in training other departments.
Skills, Experience & Qualifications
• Proven experience in a product or operational role within the travel industry.
• Strong commercial awareness and numerical accuracy.
• Excellent negotiation and supplier relationship management skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple priorities under pressure.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• A proactive, can-do attitude with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• The ability to methodically manage a demanding workload during peak periods.
• Culturally aware and confident representing Riviera Travel to international partners.
• Knowledge of European and/or Long-Haul destinations is highly desirable.
• Passion for or knowledge of solo travel would be a bonus
• A willingness to be flexible with working hours and responsibilities.