> Cruise News - Updated Daily > Cruise chiefs meet at colosal cruise convention

Four head honchos from Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and NCL got together on Tuesday at the annual Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami - the largest cruise exhibition of it's kind.

They took the stage to talk about the state of the cruise industry, and how it has changed over the past 12 months.

"What a difference a year makes" says Kevin Sheehan, CEO for NCL.

"Nothing this industry has experienced in the past could prepare us for what came barreling down the pipe in 2008 and 2009," Sheehan noted. " The Second Great Depression, The Great Recession, The Financial Crisis, whatever you want to call it – it was big and it was scary."

But a year later, "we're seeing solid signs of a recovery, albeit one that will play out over the next two to three years," Sheehan said. "The industry is expecting, and in fact is realising, positive yield growth, albeit to yields still below pre-meltdown levels. But beyond that, the general climate in the industry is much more positive, and is becoming contagious to our customer base."

Gerry Cahill (Carnival) conveyed that ticket prices had plunged by 10% to 20% in 2009. "We were all sitting there saying oh-my-God how are we going to fill the ships," he said. "But the business came back very robustly in the fall. All of us saw a huge increase in volumes toward the end of the year."

Dan Hanrahan (Celebrity) noted that pricing in 2010 only looks better when compared to 2009. Pricing still remains well below the levels of 2006 and 2007, he said. Even then, "I don't think we had the prices we rightfully deserved," he added.

Adam Goldstein (Royal Caribbean) warned that consumers are still in a fragile position. "There are still clouds that hang over this country and others," he said. "We could be in for a bumpy ride."

Click here to view the Newsletter from the Conference, released yesterday.

Cruise Shipping Miami is the world's most important and largest annual meeting for the cruise industry. For over 25 years, CSM has brought together top industry suppliers, quality cruise line buyers and decision makers from around the world for 3 days of exhibition and 4 days of conference.

Sure they weren't there to cook the books !!!!

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Bill Byth-Sailed with Solstice & Equinox and soon Eclipse

There are the main messages sent out from get togethers like this and that is what comes out to the press. Look what we are doing, this is what we have coming and how great we are to have handled things so well through these financially turbulent times but "head honchos" ........

What we want to be privy to is what went on behind the blinding exterior, what are we really to expect in the way of extra charges, cuts to services and are you all going to follow MSC's lead and change the "Gratuity" farce. ( Or would that be an illegal Cartel situation for an arrangement to be made in that field). We will probably never know but we may experience it ......Neil

Oh no, it's much worse than that.

They're there to plot their complete overtaking of the world!
Be afraid -be very afraid.
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I can just about guarantee you that we shall experience it.

Just give it six months or so.
Maybe next year. 2010 is probably set in stone already.
.

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Plus how much more can be screwed from the gullible British market - after all they're used to it.

Sorry Harry but I cannot countenance that kind of insult. The majority of people who get "screwed", as you so delightfully phrased it, are those who fail to read the small print, do things without thinking or are easily led.

There is too much written and stated about "Rip off Britain" and ”the gullible British". Whilst I admit that some promotion and merchandising is questionable you are saying that we are all thick and easily persuaded to do things that, in our right mind, we wouldn't do. Well there are loads of us who are in our right minds and are not taken advantage of. ......Neil

Last year was our first year of cruising in Europe as quite simply we couldn't afford to do it sooner. Not a lot has changed so should we try to make the most of European cruising before the prices are out of reach again ?

Neil,

Maybe slightly harsh terminology on a quick reply but I was not referring to being mislead by the small print.

The point I was trying to make is that the cruise lines fares being so much more for UK based cruises than most other parts of the world.

Why should it be that the same ship operating from a USA port can charge around one third of the price ppn than when it would leave from Southampton? Why should it be as cheap to fly to the Med or Caribbean for a cruise when you need to factor in the air fare?

It is well known that the cruise lines will charge what the market will stand and they obviously perceive that the British will pay more.

I am most certainly not saying that anyone is thick (or I would have to include myself) as , if we want to cruise, we have to choose what is available. Whilst we may be in our right minds I believe that we are being taken advantage of - by comparison to elsewhere.

The Americans -and maybe the Canadians too-
are the only ones who consistently get real cruise deals.

It's the same thing here on small Caribbean islands.
We pay warm prices too, although deals can be had now and then.

I'm thinking it has to do with market size and economies of scale.
Maybe when Euro-cruising as a whole (incl. UK) gets cooking fer real
and volume gets up to what N.American volume is..
maybe then prices will mellow?
.

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