Speaking at The Travel Network Group “Evolve” cruise conference in Birmingham last week, Lisa McAuley, Silversea’s UK and Ireland general manager and commercial director, said the adoption of technology by the industry was more about “evolution than revolution”.

“I don’t think in my lifetime that robots will take over from our butlers,” she insisted. “Don’t just assume that some trends will happen automatically; some are just fads.

“We have more discreet technology [on our ships], our waiters take orders by iPads.”

McAuley said the line was also focused on other areas of technology, including its social media presence. In particular, she said Instagram had proved notably successful, with a 673% rise in followers in the past year, which McAuley attributed to the line’s “rich content” imagery.

Elsewhere, she acknowledged that “luxury” was an “overused adjective”. “We are a true luxury brand, but we need to get better at conveying what enrichment means to a global audience,” she said.

“We’ve been doing this for years; luxury is not a buzzword for us.”