Jo Kling Steps Down From Landry & Kling
April 2, 2018
Josephine Kling
Landry & Kling Global Cruise Events announced that Josephine Kling, president and co-founder of the company 35 years ago, will be stepping down as president effective April 27.
Kling and partner Joyce Landry have been trailblazers in developing cruising’s corporate, incentive, meetings and theme cruise business.
Kling said she plans to “invest more time in my personal life and direct my energy and curiosity into other worthwhile endeavors including life-long learning, perhaps helping kids at risk find cruise jobs. I loved educating clients about cruise travel, so perhaps I’ll teach a cruise course and, naturally, keep traveling. My list of possibilities is endless.”
Going forward, Landry will assume the expanded role of president & CEO at the Miami-based company, which is undergoing a global expansion with new strategic partners and the addition of an outside sales team.
Kling is most proud of her media relations and marketing efforts which put Landry & Kling on the map back in the 1980s before corporate and incentive buyers were on the radar of any cruise lines. And more recently, the company’s digital marketing, ebooks and educational materials have helped Landry & Kling expand and continue to reinvent itself.
Over the years, Landry & Kling introduced many Fortune 500 companies to cruising and established a reputation for groundbreaking ideas such as using ships for government summits and international sporting events. They nailed charters for the Olympic Games (from Barcelona in 1992 to Rio de Janeiro in 2016). Their five-ship charter for the Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, was probably the largest dockside charter ever done.
In 2009, Landry & Kling were inducted into the Cruise Lines International Association Hall of Fame as “visionaries who led the way in seagoing corporate meetings and incentive travel.”