Cruise news

Today's Miami Herald...

Carnival plans to cut cruise fares
Carnival hopes to stimulate demand by cutting prices for its Caribbean cruises.

BY AMY MARTINEZ

Concerns about hurricanes and rising prices at the gas pump apparently are keeping many Americans from booking Caribbean cruise vacations. But they may be persuaded to push those concerns aside.

Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise ship operator, said Tuesday it's lowering fares for its Caribbean itineraries in hopes of making them forget about last year's unusually active hurricane season and the dent that gas prices are making in their wallets. Namesake brand Carnival Cruise Lines said rates for Caribbean cruises aboard 16 of its ships are down as much as 20 percent from a year ago -- with some week-long itineraries selling for $449.

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Okay, maybe it's a sale. Or, maybe it's just competition is heating up as the market hits a ceiling. Our own Viviane Oliveira was asking those questions months ago, in time for our June edition.

New Horizons

Small cruise lines get innovative to take market share from the heavyweights across the region.

Cruise lines are one of the hottest segments in the tourism industry. They moved 11 million passengers last year, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. In 1980, just 1.5 million people took a cruise. The industry expects growth to continue with no end in sight. With so many people stepping aboard, the market is not just a paradise for the big cruise lines—more and more of the little guys are moving in.

Richard Jansen, senior vice president at DVB Bank, a Frankfurt financial institution that caters to the transportation industry, says 40 smaller cruise lines and a few mid-sized companies generate US$6 billion a year in sales, just shy of a third of the $20 billion-a-year market. “This number leads to an interesting conclusion in that, the general statement that about 80% of the cruise market is controlled by Carnival, RCI, Star/NCl and MSC Cruises, thus actually is more like 70%,” Jansen said in a written statement.

Small cruise lines have decided to fight the big lines for their market share. To do that, investors are searching for market niches abandoned by the big outfits, and in the process, they have sparked a revolution.

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