Costa Cruises Appoint Disney Exec For Global Sales Management

Current senior vice president of sales and distribution for the Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line EMEA region has been selected to help run the Carnival-owned Italian Costa Cruises on March 28th.

Norbert Stiekema will be assuming the position of executive vice president for global sales, including Italy, France, Benelux, Spain, Portugal, Germany, UK, Central America, South America, and Asia-Pacific.

Structural managerial changes and adding a big time player like Disney’s Stiekema has been decided by Costa Cruises in response to the current social media boom, hoping to cater to new and prevalent digital distribution channels to help maintain its leading position.

Stiekema will report directly to President of Costa, Gianni Onorato. He is current stationed from Eurodisney Paris until partnering with the cruise line.