Written by Kari Reinikainen
Carnival Cruise Lines is to send a letter to the UK trade today telling them it will have no ships in Europe next year, Travel Weekly reports in a news alert emailed to Cruise Business in the UK.
Carnival Cruise Lines, which has the 86,000 gross ton Carnival Legend based in Dover and the 102,000 gross ton Carnival Sunshine operating from Barcelona and Venice this year, said it did not think Americans, who make up the vast majority of its passengers, would pay increased airfares to cross the Atlantic.
Itineraries for 2014 have yet to be announced, but UK director Adolfo Perez said agents may be expecting Carnival to have European sailings next year. He stressed the deployment did not mean any scaling back of the UK office and said he was very hopeful that Carnival would bring a ship back in Europe for the 2015 season.
Carnival Legend will reposition to Australia this autumn, where it will become the second ship of the company to cater for the local market.
"The important thing is that our sales team is staying exactly the same size. In fact, we're even recruiting someone right now to replace one of the team that has just left to move overseas. The trade has really supported us and sales have grown significantly from this market and so we will remain as committed as ever with the same great commissions and marketing support."
"We are really hopeful of getting a ship back in Europe in 2015 and you can't just pull out for a year and then expect to just come back again when we need the trade, so it will be business as usual with us really engaged with the trade. Unfortunately, we just don't think the airfares for Americans will be affordable."
Continue article at: cruisebusiness.com
