Swan Hellenic North America is proud to announce the appointment of Josie Bielmeier as Sales Director – East. In this role, Josie will be responsible for driving commercial growth and strengthening partnerships across a key territory that includes Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.
With over 20 years of experience in luxury travel sales and business development, Josie brings a wealth of expertise in global leisure sales, strategic partnerships, and high-value client acquisition. Her impressive career includes leadership positions at renowned luxury brands such as Fouquet’s New York, The Estate Yountville, Canyon Ranch Wellness Resorts, White Elephant Resorts and Tauck. Josie’s proven ability to build strong relationships with top-tier travel agencies and consortia will be instrumental in expanding Swan Hellenic’s presence in the North American luxury travel market.
Gordon Dirker, Senior Vice President, Americas, Swan Hellenic, expressed his enthusiasm about Josie’s appointment: “We are thrilled to welcome Joann (Josie) Bielmeier to our North American Sales team. Josie brings a wealth of experience that will be invaluable in growing our trade partnerships across North America. Her expertise will help us build on several record-breaking sales months and sustain that momentum. Josie will report to Lisette Martinez, our Senior Director of Trade & Charter Sales. Under Lisette’s leadership and with Josie’s appointment, our North American Sales team is now complete, ready to help Travel Advisors across the region promote and sell our exceptional portfolio of Cultural Expeditions.”
Josie Bielmeier will focus on delivering tailored commercial strategies and driving growth across her extensive territory, reflecting Swan Hellenic’s commitment to providing unparalleled luxury travel experiences through expert leadership and dedicated service.
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About Swan Hellenic
Swan Hellenic was relaunched in July 2020 to proudly advance the spirit of cultural expedition cruising the company pioneered in the 1950s. Building on its British roots, the new company has a distinctly cosmopolitan culture dedicated to providing guests with global opportunities to see what others don’t.
Today’s guests can choose to explore worldwide, from the Arctic and Antarctic to Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific, aboard Swan Hellenic’s fleet of three purpose-built boutique ships.
Each of these luxurious new vessels features elegant Scandi-design interiors, extensive outdoor spaces and dedicated expedition facilities. SH Minerva and SH Vega, two 5-star Polar Code PC 5 expedition cruise ships with ice-strengthened hulls, were launched in December 2021 and July 2022. Both accommodate 152 guests in 76 spacious suites and staterooms, the majority with large balconies. SH Diana is a slightly larger PC 6 ice-class vessel launched in April 2023. She accommodates 192 guests in the same distinctive comfort and style in 96 staterooms and suites.
While sharing the unique design features of her sister ships, SH Diana also introduces certain key enhancements, including a dedicated presentation and lecture theatre overlooking the lounge, and on-board Tender boats to take guests ashore in addition to and in greater comfort than the customary expedition Zodiacs. Like her siblings, SH Diana features a state-of-the-art gym, spa, panoramic sauna, club room and swimming pool with poolside grill.
All three ships feature three dining venues – the Swan Restaurant, Club Lounge and Pool Bar & Grill – and are built in full compliance with SOLAS Safe Return to Port requirements. Dedicated to guests with a passion for adventure and cultural exploration, the company’s meticulously planned itineraries explore the wild landscapes, wildlife, peoples and cultures of the world’s less travelled and most historic regions.
The crews each include a team of up to 12 seasoned expedition guides, expert speakers and lecturers, for a total complement of 120 and 140 persons respectively, offering outstanding staff-to-guest ratios to deliver the highest standards of attentive personal service.
Swan Hellenic’s cultural expedition cruises have always been distinguished by the company, guidance and expert lectures of famous explorers, seasoned expedition guides and leading authorities in their fields. Now, many of the cruises are also enriched by partnerships with unique organizations to bring very different experts on board in the same way, including the world-renowned scientists of the SETI Institute.
The SETI Explore Space at Sea Series brings a different scientist from the SETI Institute aboard each cruise to provide guests with expert insights into the history and latest discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology and planetary science, as well as the quest to find other forms of life within and beyond our solar system.
On many cruises, guests can also participate in Swan Hellenic’s Citizen Science partnerships, contributing valuable data obtained during their expeditions and on board, reporting cloud data with NASA, recording whale sightings with Happywhale, monitoring phytoplankton with the Secchi Disk Study, and Antarctic seabird numbers with Stony Brook University.
Headquartered in Cyprus, with offices in London (serving the UK, Ireland and India), Dusseldorf (serving Continental Europe), Monaco, Miami (serving the North American market), Hong Kong (serving Greater China and South-East Asia), Sydney (serving Australia-New Zealand) and Sao Paulo for Latam, Dubai for the GCC, Swan Hellenic supports the travel trade with local specialist partners to provide clients with expert personal service worldwide.