ruben.maritime

MIAMI 22 December – Carnival Corp is committed to growing its German joint venture with TUI using newbuilding tonnage, assuming a final deal is struck. Speaking during yesterday’s conference call, Carnival chairman Micky Arison explained that given TUI Cruises’ strong potential for premium pricing, it was decided not to shift older tonnage into the line, but rather to stick with newbuildings from the onset. “If we went into this with older ships, that by its very nature would require us to start the brand with discounted prices and we don’t want to do that,” he said, adding that Carnival “has had discussions with a number of yards on the TUI ship [to be delivered in 2010], subject to a finalised agreement with TUI”. The new TUI vessel’s design will be “very different” from AIDA’s ‘club ship’ concept, he continued, “and will be much closer to a traditional cruise product, but very much geared toward German clientele”. Carnival chief operating officer Howard Frank noted that the German cruise market is twice the size of the UK’s, yet Germany currently has only one brand, versus 6-7 in England. “We always knew we’d need other brands in Germany,” said Arison.

Etiquetas: cruise market, cruises, international maritime affairs, shipping business

This entry was posted on viernes, diciembre 22, 2006 at 9:05 p. m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.