Cruise Industry Bookings Drop since Fatal European Accident

Two of the cruise sector’s biggest companies have reported falls in bookings in the aftermath of the Costa Concordia accident in Italy.

Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corporation both said bookings had fallen about 15 per cent compared with the prior year following the incident on Friday, 13 January, which has claimed the lives of 17 passengers to date.

Royal Caribbean said in a statement that bookings had suffered for sailings in the first three quarters of 2012 with spring and summer seeing the largest declines. Before the incident, bookings for 2012 were up by 5 per cent compared with the same period in 2011 and people were paying more.

Cayman’s travel industry was not reporting any effects from the incident in terms of locally-sourced bookings. The number of port calls in 2012 is still the same as originally projected, said Robert Hamaty of the Association for the Advancement of Cruise Tourism, with no cancellations to date. Measuring actual cruise arrivals was not the easiest, he said.

Royal Caribbean said in its fourth quarter earnings report that it was difficult to assess the impact of the incident on its revenues. Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger told reporters the company had also seen a slowdown in reservations.