The soft-Caribbean cruise market is showing new signs of life, according to financial analysts.
“Caribbean cruises — considered the industry’s entry-level product due to their reasonable cost — are vital to the sector. The market makes up 40% of Carnival Corp.’s capacity and nearly 50% of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s,” says the AP in quoting Citi Investment Research analyst Joshua Attie.
Both Miami-based companies have been boosted by the recent surge of interest in the Caribbean, a region where demand had been sluggish over the past two years. Oversupply and hurricanes have hurt the market.
Some analysts point toward lower capacity contributing to the recent recovery.
Cruise operators began shifting some of their supply out of the Caribbean and into the more profitable European market back when the Caribbean started to slow, says the AP.
Report by David Wilkening
