Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines 2011 Annual Report Download - page 18

2011 ANNUAL REPORT 14
PART I
including Pullmantur, our Spanish, Portuguese and
Latin American targeted cruise line and CDF Croisières
de France, which targets guests primarily in France.
Passenger ticket revenues generated by sales origi-
nating in countries outside of the United States were
approximately 49%, 45%, and 46% of total passenger
ticket revenues in 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.
International guests have grown from approximately
871,000 in 2007 to approximately 2.2 million in 2011.
Manage Our Operating Expenditures and Ensure
Adequate Cash and Liquidity
We are committed to improving our cost efficiency
and continue to implement cost-containment initiatives,
including a number of initiatives to reduce energy
consumption and, by extension, fuel costs. These
include the design of more fuel-efficient ships as well
as the implementation of more efficient hardware,
including propulsion and cooling systems incorporat-
ing energy efficiencies. In addition, we are focused on
maintaining a strong liquidity position, reducing our
debt and improving our credit metrics. We are also
continuing to pursue our objective of returning our
credit ratings to investment grade. We believe these
strategies enhance our ability to achieve our overall
goal of maximizing our return on invested capital and
long-term shareholder value.
Brand Awareness and Market Penetration
We continue to work to increase the recognition and
market penetration of our brands among consumers
throughout the world. Royal Caribbean International,
Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises are
established global brands in the contemporary, pre-
mium and up-market segments of the cruise vacation
industry, respectively. We increase brand awareness
and market penetration of our Royal Caribbean
International brand by targeting adults and families
who are vacation enthusiasts interested in exploring
new destinations and seeking new experiences through
high quality and excellent-value cruise vacations.
Celebrity Cruises’ communications target vacationers
who most likely have prior cruise experience and who
seek upscale experiences, luxurious accommodations,
fine dining, spa services, and appreciate a high staff-
to-guest ratio. Azamara Club Cruises targets experi-
enced travelers who enjoy cruising and who seek a
more intimate onboard experience and a high level
of service. Azamara Club Cruises’ communications
emphasize its unique itineraries and distinctive desti-
nations experiences with longer stays and more over-
nights. Pullmantur is a widely recognized brand in the
Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American contemporary
cruise markets. CDF Croisières de France is targeted
to serve the contemporary segment of the French
cruise market.
Our brands’ marketing campaigns are designed to
broaden the awareness of each brand. This includes
the use of traditional media, social media, websites
(www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com,
www.azamaraclubcruises.com, www.pullmantur.es,
www.cdfcroisieresdefrance.fr) and travel agencies.
Our brands engage past and potential guests by
collaborating with travel partners and through call
centers, international offices and international repre-
sentatives. In addition, Royal Caribbean International,
Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises retain
repeat guests with exclusive benefits offered through
their respective loyalty programs.
We also increase brand awareness across all of our
brands through travel agencies who generate the
majority of our bookings. We are committed to further
developing and strengthening this very important
distribution channel by continuing to focus the travel
agents on the unique qualities of each of our brands.
Fleet Revitalization, Maintenance and Expansion
We place a strong focus on product innovation which
we seek to achieve by introducing new concepts on
our new ships and continuously making improvements
to our existing fleet in a cost-effective manner. Our
revitalization and maintenance programs enable us to
incorporate our latest signature innovations, maintain
consistency across the fleet and allow us to benefit
from economies of scale by leveraging our suppliers.
Ensuring consistency across our fleet provides us
with the flexibility to deploy our ships among our
brand portfolio.
We are committed to building state-of-the-art ships,
and currently have signed agreements for the construc-
tion of three new ships, Celebrity Reflection which is
scheduled to enter service in the fourth quarter of
2012 and two ships of a new generation of Royal
Caribbean International cruise ships known as “Project
Sunshine” which are scheduled to enter service in the
third quarter of 2014 and in the second quarter of
2015, respectively. These additions are expected to
increase our passenger capacity by approximately
11,200 berths by December 31, 2015, or approximately
12.1%, as compared to our capacity as of December 31,
2011. We continuously evaluate opportunities to order
new ships, purchase existing ships or sell ships in our
current fleet.
In support of our maintenance programs, we own a
40% interest in a ship repair and maintenance facility,
Grand Bahama Shipyard Ltd., which is the largest
cruise ship dry-dock repair facility in the world and
is located in Freeport, Grand Bahamas. We utilize
this facility, among other ship repair facilities, for our
regularly scheduled drydocks and certain emergency
repairs as may be required. In addition, the facility
serves unaffiliated cruise and cargo ships, oil and gas
tankers, and offshore units.