Carnival announces record sales and fare increases

http://tinyurl.com/ygx9gsf

Basically, Carnival says bookings have been great so far this year that
they have been able to adjust pricing upwards.... and effective March
22, they are looking to implement a fare increase across the board of up
to 5%.

Last week on my blog I mentioned that Royal Caribbean was experiencing
strong bookings and rising prices. I also mentioned that last minute
fares for most cruise lines have gone up.

What is unusual this morning is that Carnival made a public announcement
that they were raising fares. I've never seen that done before and am
somewhat puzzled by their motivations, since they have been steadily
raising prices already. Maybe they are trying to generate some
increased volume in sales over the next few weeks while we are in the
peak of Wave Season?

One thing for sure... this has had a big effect on stock prices. CCL is
up $1.23 and RCL is up $1.74 a share as of 9:48 AM EST.


--

George Leppla

Countryside Travel http://www.CruiseMaster.com
Blog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/
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