Claire Stirrup to head Celebrity Cruises EMEA as Giles Hawke promoted

Celebrity Cruises has promoted Giles Hawke and Claire Stirrup in a shake-up of its senior management structure.

Hawke steps up from his position as EMEA vice-president & managing director to assume the role of vice-president international, with responsibility for all regions outside North America.

The newly-created role creates a management structure mirroring that at sister line Royal Caribbean International, with Hawke moving into the position 17 months after joining Celebrity from Cosmos, Globus and Avalon Waterways.

EMEA senior sales director Stirrup moves up to become managing director UK & EMEA a year after she had her remit expanded as part of a team restructure. Stirrup has worked for the Royal Caribbean Group for 11 years, the last 10 at Celebrity, and has been sales director for the past eight years. She was previously a commercial and regional sales manager for Tui.

She said: “As part of a new team structure to meet the evolving needs of the business, Giles has been promoted to a new position of vice-president international, overseeing our international strategy. He will look after the APAC region including Australia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Mexico and the UK and EMEA markets.”

Hawke, who will continue to report into Celebrity president Laura Hodges-Bethge, added: “The idea is to have a more cohesive global approach. Each market or region has worked quite independently in the past so we’re now establishing a more joined-up strategy which fits with the brand’s development and growth.”

In his new role he will oversee existing international offices and regions as well as “looking at other international opportunities”.

Stirrup said she would back-fill her sales director position after stepping into her new role.

“We are actively recruiting for a sales director. Starting internally as we do with the majority of vacancies, but also possibly externally,” she added.

Sales, marketing and commercial functions will now all report into Stirrup, who will continue to report into Hawke.

“With all the announcements we have made recently, it’s an incredibly exciting time,” she said. “Xcel is on her way and we have announced another Edge series ship, so the brand is going from strength-to-strength and we’re in a really good position to really support this.”

Hawke said he would “not be offended” if Stirrup chose to change anything after taking the helm in the UK, but Stirrup said: “I won’t be making any immediate changes. I am delighted to lead a passionate team in this important market.”

Commenting on Celebrity’s recent announcement that it will launch into river cruising from 2027, Stirrup hinted: “There will be some new news on that as we head into the coming months.”

Asked how the UK market was faring currently, Hawke said the line had put programmes on sale earlier than ever as customers wanted to book further out, and as a result, there were probably fewer cheaper options now available for this summer.

But he said the line had plenty of capacity to sell, including ex-UK on new Edge-class ship Apex, and particularly fly-cruise to Europe and the Caribbean, which he described as a “significant opportunity”.

Stirrup added that Apex was coming to Southampton for a longer season this year – arriving earlier and leaving later.

“The UK remains as important as ever to the Celebrity brand and our share of global business is increasing if anything in 2025,” Hawke said.

The promotions come a month after parent company Royal Caribbean Group signed an agreement with to order a sixth Edge Series ship for delivery to Celebrity Cruises in 2028.

It will be the sister ship to Celebrity Xcel, which is preparing to enter service later this year.

Other Edge ships include Celebrity Ascent, Celebrity Beyond, Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Edge.