Carnival Forecast

Carnival Corporation executives painted an upbeat picture of 2010 in their recent Q1 earnings call. According to vice chairman and COO Howard Frank, over the last nine weeks, bookings for the rest of the year are up 8 percent and pricing is up 17 percent over last year. Broken down by market, Frank said that North American bookings were up 7 percent and pricing was up 26 percent. In Europe, bookings were up 10 percent and pricing 6 percent. Frank said that the company has seen a broad increase in pricing during the wave season.

Carnival’s stock has been inching up since the beginning the year and traded above $39 at press time, compared to a 52-week low and high of $20.70 and $39.35. The consensus 12-month price target is $40.73.

Tracking Per Diems

When forecasting future ticket and onboard spending per diems, it may be useful to do that in the context of the recent past. Both Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises achieved their highest (gross) ticket per diems for the past 10 years in 2008 at $179.93 and $171.03 respectively. The highest onboard spending per diems were reached in 2008 with $65.10 for Royal and in 2007 with $49.80 for Carnival

ECA Accepted

As was expected, the IMO has officially accepted the proposal to make the waters up to 200 miles off the North American coasts an Emissions Control Area (ECA), starting to phase in tougher restrictions in 2012.

And there is more:  Ravenna introduces its new port; MTN launches the first fully digital maritime TV service; MCP installs mobile phone system on the AIDAblu; Hamburg places itself solidly on the map; Venezia Terminal Passeggeri introduces new gangway system; Norwegian Cruise Line gives an update.  In addition is Noted, where Cruise Industry News points out some idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies in cruise line policies and marketing.