Royal Caribbean sees major downturn in bookings

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has said that the global financial crisis has affected consumer spending and a significant slowdown in cruise bookings.

“While the company’s order book remains solid, there has been a significant deterioration recently in new bookings due to economic and financial turmoil,” according to a statement released by the company along with its third quarter earnings report.

The parent of Royal Caribbean, Azamara Cruises, and Celebrity Cruises reported record earnings for the third quarter of 2008, amounting to $411.9 million ($1.92 per share), as compared with $395.0 million ($1.84 per share) for the third quarter of 2007. These earnings came in on bookings made well before the world’s financial markets began to fall.

“While we are pleased with our third quarter results, the operating environment has changed dramatically in recent weeks,” noted Royal Caribbean’s chairman and CEO, Richard Fain, in the statement released.

It was also indicated in the statement that the cruise brands was offering new discounts aimed at filling cruises.

“As we have seen during other challenging periods, our customers are delaying their (purchase decisions) further out,” said Royal Caribbean’s CFO, Brian Rice. “It is too early to respond to this atmosphere in a systematic way, but we have attracted short term volume in the traditionally weak fourth quarter using discounts.”

Thanks to www.usatoday.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.royalcaribbean.com