Carnival Cruise Ruf springs a leak

8:30 AM Carnival, Cruise, springs No Comments

Martha C. White, NBC News post - 3 days

Based on accounts by some passengers of the smelly conditions aboard the Carnival cruise ship affected, triumph, should take the boat clean up much work to complete. The job pales in comparison, but to all hands on deck efforts, that which it takes the tarnish from the reputation of the company scrub.

"With something this, if it happens, it will be big the enormous media coverage" Peter G. Whelpton, a cruise-industry consultant said. "It will affect definitely Carnival... I think that they will see a short-term cooling their bookings."

The triumph pulled should by a trio of tugs, in mobile, Alabama, sometime Thursday night limp. The stranding is already expensive for Carnival.

The company total canceled 14 future trips during what normally that industry would be high season in the United States. Carnival announced yesterday that the cost of these errors and repairs to reduce earnings per share by between eight and 10 cents for the first half of the fiscal year of the company.

In all likelihood the cost will be higher, because that calculation does not factor in the industry, can the Carnival due to the damage that his reputation has suffered, losing, said Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz.

"My guess is that it will be a few more cents on the road through the advertising," she said. "It is definitely a little PR to cause headaches for them."

Carnival public image some stormy seas has taken in recent years. An engine-room fire, the magnificence of Carnival 2010 and last year catastrophic fall, the Costa Concordia (a Carnival-owned line) crippled another fire followed in March of this year, this time on board the Costa Allegra in the Indian Ocean.

Americans make travelers around the world nearly two-thirds of the cruise, according to the cruise lines International Association. Luckily allocated for Carnival, only about one in five people the Concordia disaster loud's parent company, Ipsos Loyalty, a division of market research firm of Ipsos.

"The public memory is short," said Whelpton, especially if an incident takes place a continent away.

The misery of the triumph, plays out on the other side in real time about anxious text messages and tweets by passengers on their mobile phones. A passenger today on Thursday said that food was scarce, water was in the cabin and toilet facilities were virtually non-existent is, compare the ladawri existence on the stranded ship to those within the Superdome as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Carnival said that the crews are doing what you can, and denied it, passenger accounts.

"Every decision we, have made since Sunday morning ensures the safety of our guests and get them as fast as possible home"said Gerry Cahill, CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, in a press conference.

They also confirmed that the 4,000 people aboard involved less than two dozen public toilets.

3.143 Passengers on board are most Americans what Whelpton increases was interested in the story.

"This seems a really high number of people who are affected," said Andrea Stokes, Vice President in the travel and leisure group at Ipsos Loyalty. "This is not good to have affected so many people."

Another factor that will keep the incident in people's minds for a while is plans by the National Transportation Safety Board, U.S. Coast Guard and the Bahamas Maritime Authority (where the ship is marked), to investigate the fire.

Some critics have charged in the past that the cruise industry is regulated too easily because the multinational character of the company means that airlines need safety and other topics not often, to comply with regulations and requirements with regard to work.

Carnival of the latest incident comes to an otherwise positive time for the cruise industry. Bookings on CLIA Member ships rose from 16.3 million in 2011 on an estimated 17.2 million in the previous year. "CLIA partner lines passenger growth on average annually witnessed by 7.2 percent since 1980," said the group in a report of this month.

Whelpton said the cruise industry tends to be "Recession-proof" and Carnival has many avid fans. Skirmish played out on his Facebook page, as loyalists defending the Cruise Line, suggesting that passengers on board the affected vehicle were exaggerated the severity of the conditions, so that she could angle for a larger payout (passengers are always $500 in addition to refunds and a discount on a future cruise).

While this subset of customers, it will not leave may tend to drive less brand loyal cruisers of the Carnival for your next vacation. Travelers who never crossed – a "key market" for the industry, according to Stokes - are most likely from the idea of cruising as a whole can be made.

"Where would more have a negative impact on people who never crossed would be", she said.