Carnival UK discounts ’05 cruises by 45%

TravelMole Exclusive:  Carnival UK expects passenger numbers to rise by 12% across its five brands in 2005, up from 400,000 carryings expected this year.

The cruise giant’s 2005 sales drive kicks off with 45% early booking discounts for reservations made by the end of August.

The growth plans were outlined by Carnival UK managing director David Dingle as the company unveiled its 2005 brochures to 200 top agents attending a launch event in Warwick today. The brochures cover P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard and Ocean Village. Discovery brand Swan Hellenic’s programme is released later.

Mr Dingle also disclosed that casual cruising arm Ocean Village was being earmarked for a second ship sometime after 2005.

Launched in 2003 as an alternative to traditional cruising, Ocean Village adopted an aggressive pricing policy in order to establish itself.

Mr Dingle said: “Having got the brand established in 2003, when we had to use price as an important tool, we improved prices in 2004. We need to go one step further in 2005 to improve pricing.

“It’s a mass brand yet we have to ensure it is a sound economic proposition as a solid case to increase capacity.

“This won’t be in 2005 but we would like to think as soon as possible after that. The preferred option would be to move a ship from within the Carnival family.”

Mr Dingle was speaking in Venice at the shipyard float out of £200 million new P&O Cruises vessel Arcadia, claimed to be the largest ship to be built dedicated to the UK market. Carrying almost 2,000 passengers, the ship enters service next April.

The addition of Arcadia – originally earmarked for Cunard – plus Artemis, being transferred from Princess Cruises, will see P&O Cruises’ capacity increase by 10% next year.

Meanwhile, the deployment of a UK-dedicated ship for the first time will see Princess target 50% growth from Britain, up from 50,000 passengers due to take fly-cruises with the US brand this year.

Cunard is aiming to maintain this year’s passenger levels despite the fleet being reduced from three to two vessels due to the departure of Caronia to Saga.

Mr Dingle said this would be achieved through a combination of QM2 operating a “significantly increased” number of transatlantic crossings to 26 next year and an enhanced programme of itineraries by QE2 from the UK.

Today’s event will also see the introduction of a combined sales force across the brands under the Complete Cruise Solution banner.

*The float out of Arcadia coincided with a surge in Carnival’s share price on the London Stock Exchange.

Report by Phil Davies