RCC Results and Forecast
Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) executives expressed optimism for the rest of the year on the company’s first quarter earnings call and the market responded by boosting the share price. On the April 23 earnings call, the company gave a full year earnings guidance of $1.35, compared to actual earnings of $2.68 for last year. Guidance for the second quarter is from flat earnings to a loss of $0.05 per share.
Flu Advisories
At press time, all the cruise lines calling in Mexico had announced itinerary changes, temporarily suspending port calls. The CDC has also recommended that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico. Mexican tourism officials were not available for comment at press time, but Alex Casarrubias, marketing director of the cruise port in Mazatlán on the Pacific coast, was able to give Cruise Industry News a sense of how the ports will be affected. Seven calls have been canceled there so far, which with average passenger spending of $65 per person means about $1 million in lost revenues, plus about $115,000 that it would have collected in payments for various port services. “As bad as it is, it could have been a lot worse,” Casarrubias said. “This is happening at the tail end of the October-to-April high season.”
Caribbean Pick Up for 2010
Cruise capacity in the Caribbean next summer is expected to increase by 12 percent over 2009, for 2.7 million passengers – compared to 2.4 million slated for this year, according to estimates by Cruise Industry News.
And there is more: NCL becomes the third cruise line to reduce Alaska capacity for 2010; Carnival Cruise Lines has launched year-round service from Baltimore; the Costa Luminosa was handed over to Costa Crociere; Steiner Leisure reported net income of $7.9 million, or $0.54 per share, on revenues of $117.1 million for the first quarter of 2009; Thomson Cruises is homeporting the Celebration out of the Turkish port Marmaris from May through October 2010; the All Leisure Group has acquired Hebridean Cruises and the Hebridean Princess.
