Carnival Cruises 2008 Annual Report Download - page 20

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20
which features over a dozen sites, including AIDA, Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa, Cunard,
Holland America Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, and Seabourn. Crew blogs are written by
ship captains, cruise and entertainment directors, executive pursers and special guests.
Newbuild sites are devoted to key milestones for ships, such as Seabourn Odyssey and
Carnival Dream. Cruise line communities, such as AIDA's Web Lounge and The World of Costa,
are a way for guests to connect through a shared interest in a particular brand. The blog
of Carnival Cruise Lines Senior Cruise Director, John Heald, has attracted over 3.6 million
visits since being launched two years ago and was named "Best Cruise Line Blog" in Porthole
Magazine's 2009 Editor-In-Chief Awards. This popular blog provides readers with a unique
behind-the-scenes look at the Carnival Cruise Lines experience while sharing John's humorous
and insightful observations on a wide range of topics.
To stimulate demand, we offer a number of homeports that are closer to guests' homes as
this enables certain guests to lower the price of their cruise vacation by substantially
reducing or eliminating the cost of air travel to and from the port.
In the UK and Australia we have formed a sales alliance known as the "Complete Cruise
Solution," whereby our UK and Australian sales forces and back-office operations are able to
provide their guests with one-stop cruise shopping for a number of our brands. We also
raise consumer and travel agent awareness through the "World's Leading Cruise Lines"
alliance for our family of North American cruise brands, as well as Costa and Cunard.
Finally, most of our cruise brands offer their own past guest recognition programs, such as
Carnival's "Concierge Club", Princess' "Captain's Circle", Costa's "CostaClub" or Holland
America Line's "Mariner Society," through which they reward repeat guests with special
incentives such as discounted fares, expedited ship embarkation and disembarkation and
onboard activities.
XIII. Seasonality
Our revenues from the sale of passenger tickets are seasonal. Historically, demand for
cruises has been greatest during our third fiscal quarter, which includes the Northern
Hemisphere summer months, and holidays. This higher demand during the third quarter and
holidays results in higher net revenue yields and, accordingly, the largest share of our net
income is earned during these periods. The seasonality of our results is increased due to
ships being taken out of service for maintenance, which we typically schedule during non-
peak demand periods. In addition, substantially all of Holland America Tours' and Princess
Tours' revenues and net income are generated from May through September in conjunction with
the Alaska cruise season.
XIV. Competition
We compete with land-based vacation alternatives throughout the world, including, among
others, hotels, resorts (including all-inclusives), theme parks, land-based casino
operations and vacation ownership properties located in Las Vegas, Nevada, Orlando, Florida,
the Bahamas, France, Dubai, Canary Islands and various Caribbean, Mediterranean, Mexican,
and Hawaiian Island destinations, as well as numerous other vacation choices throughout the
world.
Our primary cruise competitors for North American-sourced guests are RCCL, which owns
Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises; Norwegian Cruise Line,
Disney Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas
Cruises, Silversea Cruises and Windstar Cruises.
Our primary cruise competitors for European-sourced guests in the UK are Royal
Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Thomson
Cruises, which is owned by TUI, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, Discovery Cruises and Saga Cruises;
in Germany they are MSC Cruises, TUI Cruises, which is jointly owned by TUI and RCCL, Hapag-
Lloyd, which is also owned by TUI, Phoenix Reisen and Transocean Cruises; and in southern
Europe they are MSC Cruises, Louis Cruise Line, and Pullmantur and CDF Croisieres de France,
both owned by RCCL. We also compete for guests throughout Europe with other North American
cruise competitors, including Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise
Line.
Our primary cruise competitors for guests sourced from other parts of the world, such
as Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South America, are Royal Caribbean International,
Celebrity Cruises, Star Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, CVC Cruise, MSC Cruises and
Pullmantur.
Our North American, European and Australian brands also compete among themselves for
guests.