Rough debut for Costa Asia
MIAMI 22 December – Carnival Corp has conceded that its fledging Costa Asia division is off to a poor start and that changes are ahead. The China programme launched in Shanghai in July with the Costa Allegra, which has repositioned as scheduled to Hong Kong for the winter. “We’re finding the Chinese market to be difficult,” admitted Carnival chief financial officer Gerald Cahill during yesterday’s conference call, adding: “The ship is underperforming our expectations, with larger than expected losses and lower net revenue yield.” As Carnival chairman Micky Arison put it: “We always knew we’d be making an investment to educate ourselves [in the Chinese market], but our investment is a little more than we expected – maybe more than a little.” Carnival chief operating officer Howard Frank concluded: “We’ve pretty much got the product right; the response from the Chinese passengers has been very good. But the issue is market penetration and getting support from the distribution system.” To compensate, Frank said that itinerary modifications would be made in 2007 and new passenger source markets would be tapped. “The plan is to stay the course,” he affirmed.
Etiquetas: cruise market, cruises
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on viernes, diciembre 22, 2006 at 9:06 p. m..
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