CLIA Spain established in Madrid

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 25 October 2013 25 October 2013

The outgoing chairman of CLIA Europe Manfredi Lefebvre D'Ovidio announced at the end of his "The State of the Industry" speech at Madrid International Cruise Summit yesterday (24 October 2013), the creation of CLIA Spain, Alan Lam reports from Madrid.

The incumbent chairman also introduced to his audience the first president of the association's Spanish branch, Belén Wangüemert of Royal Caribbean Cruise Limited, and its vice president, Emiliano González of MSC Cruises.

As the second most popular cruise destination in Europe, Manfredi Lefebvre D'Ovidio underlined the importance of the cruise business to Spain and, in turn, Spain's importance to the cruise business.

5.2 million cruise tourists visited Spain in 2012, about 1.2 million of these embarked from Spanish ports, generating EUR 1.25 billion in direct expenditure to the beleaguered economy.

Spain is also the continent's fourth largest source market, with 576,000 people choosing cruise as their holiday option in 2012. This number is expected to grow steadily hereafter.

The need for an association like CLIA has been obvious. Earlier this year, country specific cruise industry organisations in the UK, Germany Brasil plus regional ones in Europe and Australasia were rebranded under the CLIA houseflag.

RCCL upbeat on outlook as yields, bookings firm

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 25 October 2013 25 October 2013

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL), the world's second largest cruise shipping group, says the yield outlook has improved and booked load factors for 2014 are ahead of the situation a year earlier at stable prices.

"The company's yield outlook has improved for the full year 2013. Constant-Currency Net Yield outlook for the full year has been raised to an increase of approximately 3%. Constant-Currency expectations for NCC excluding fuel are unchanged at an increase of 1% to 2%. Fuel costs are expected to be $3 million lower than previously calculated due primarily to energy conservation measures and the Millennium unscheduled drydock," the company said in a statement.

"Based on the above and current fuel prices and currency exchange rates, the company expects that full year adjusted earnings per share will increase to a range of $2.30 to $2.35 per share."

The company's booked load factors are currently ahead of the same time last year in all four quarters of 2014. Booked prices for the first quarter are in-line with the same time last year and are up for the second, third and fourth quarters. Caribbean bookings have consistently been running ahead of the same time last year, although slightly below on a capacity adjusted basis.

"Caribbean pricing remains under some pressure, but while it is early in the booking cycle, we expect yields in the Caribbean to be flat to only slightly down in 2014," said Jason T. Liberty, chief financial officer. "Fortunately, the summer Caribbean is a core strength of ours and with the improvements we are seeing in our other products, we are forecasting overall yield improvement in the low single digits for 2014," said Liberty.