Carnival pull their ships from Europe 2014

 

10 May 2013 Dear Valued Agent Partner I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the support we’ve received from you this year.  Our advertising and trade programmes have certainly “Switched On” demand for the Carnival product in the UK and Ireland and we are pleased that we are able to welcome even more guests on board Carnival in 2013. We couldn’t have done that without all of you. I also wanted to update you on a few Carnival deployment announcements. As you may have seen recently, we have made the decision to base the Carnival Legend seasonally in Australia next year.  Additionally, we have made the decision to keep the rest of the fleet sailing from our  US home ports.  Given the current market conditions, increasing air fares, and the fact that most of our guests are from the U.S., we have decided to not deploy a Carnival ship to Europe in 2014. This was a difficult decision for us, as we realise our guests truly love sailing with Carnival in Europe, largely because we provide great holidays at great value for money.  We are hopeful we will return in the future. Carnival continues to be committed to the UK and Irish markets. Whilst we have relied on you all for our European deployment in 2013, you continue to bring guests to Carnival in the Caribbean…and they love it.  In fact, the majority of our UK customers choose a cruising holiday that departs from North America.  After all, we are the cruise industry leader in year-round Caribbean cruise holidays including departures from all of the major Florida ports and we are the only cruise line to offer year-round departures from Barbados, a true British favourite. In addition, our dedicated trade sales team, competitive commercial terms, and co-op marketing funding will remain in place during 2014.  We have 24 ships in our fleet and we will increasingly rely on the UK to help fill those ships.  We will continue to work hard to support the UK and Irish Trade next year and work on sourcing even more guests from these markets.  We look forward to working closely with you to find the key products that sell extremely well with guests from the UK and Ireland and help you sell more on those products.  We are also ensuring that our travel partners have the opportunity to see a Carnival FunShip by hosting over 100 agents aboard the Carnival Sunshine this summer as well as ship visits to the Carnival Legend while she’s deployed in the UK this year. Thank you again for your support this year.  We look forward to continuing our strong partnerships in the future. Yours sincerely, Adolfo M. Pérez Managing Director, UK and Ireland Carnival Cruise Lines © 2013 Carnival Cruise Lines