Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL), the world’s second largest cruise shipping company, says that 2013 booking activity in the fourth quarter was slightly lower than the same time last year, with the greatest decline coming in the aftermath of super-storm Sandy.
However, the company has observed a much stronger booking pattern since the beginning of WAVE season and demand trends have been quite healthy.
In recent weeks, booking volumes have been running approximately 20% ahead of the same time last year, due in part to the slower booking trends the company experienced after the Costa Concordia grounding in January of 2012.
Normalizing for this favorable comparison, the company still considers the WAVE season to be off to a strong start, particularly from U.S. points of sale. Booking volumes are exceeding those during the same period in 2011 and in the aggregate, forward booked load factors and pricing are higher than at this time in both 2011 and 2012.
Full year Net Yields in 2013 are expected to increase 2% to 4% on a Constant-Currency basis and 3% to 5% on an As-Reported basis.
"We were proactive in reducing our deployment and guest sourcing programs from Europe due to uncertain consumer spending patterns as austerity measures continue to pressure the region," commented Brian J. Rice, vice-chairman and chief financial officer. Rice continued, "Encouragingly though, demand from our other source markets, especially the U.S., is strong and should more than offset any ongoing weakness in Europe. In fact, we are optimistic that we will achieve record yields in the Caribbean and Alaska this year."
