Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines 2008 Annual Report Download - page 10

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pricing premium in the marketplace, Celebrity Solstice and her sister ships will go a
long way to improving the brand’s overall financial contribution. Celebrity’s products
continue to earn rave reviews and awards, but we need to do more to ensure this
translates into higher revenues and bottom line performance.
Pullmantur, our Spanish cruise and tour company, was heavily impacted by the global
economic environment as the Spanish economy suffered disproportionately relative
to many of our other markets. We have responded by taking steps that will provide
lasting, long-term strategic benefits to the brand, including upgrading the size and
quality of Pullmantur’s fleet and investing in sales, marketing, and management
capabilities. Despite the current economic backdrop, strategic expansion continues
at Pullmantur. Collectively, these actions have strengthened Pullmantur so the brand
is well poised to take advantage of an eventual rebound in the Spanish economy.
Pullmantur has maintained a commanding market position in Spain but the economy
has been problematic. It suffered earlier than other economies and we therefore
expect that it will feel the benefits earlier than others.
SAFETY, SECURITY, AND ENVIRONMENT
While continuing to focus on improving our returns, we continue to maintain a
keen focus on the well-being of our guests and the environments in which we
operate. Our safety and security efforts have been extensive in 2008 and some of the
highlights include our participation in the Cruise Ship Safety Forum, which promotes
industry cooperation on maritime safety initiatives, having the first cruise ship to
apply new international damage stability regulations, and installing thousands of
cameras throughout the public spaces.
Our environmental initiatives continue to be guided by our desire to minimize our
impact wherever we operate. We are maintaining our focus on these efforts as
demonstrated by our installation of 16 new Advanced Wastewater Purification
(AWP) systems. These units purify our discharges to higher purity standards than
many municipal water treatment plants. While these units have been more difficult
to install and operate than their promoters promised, we remain committed to
continuing their development and installation. Additionally, we installed “White
Box” units to monitor and record our bilge water cleaning and discharge processes.