Carnival Corporation holds position against a 14pc spike in Caribbean cruise capacity in the first quarter.
CEO John Weinstein downplays concerns from Wall Street analysts. More ships, geopolitical concerns, airfare costs, and private island development drive the increase.
The overall Caribbean market grew 27pc in cruise capacity, with the non Carnival market growing by 14pc. The company is driving business forward with a diversified global portfolio.
Carnival says it has mitigated inflation through cost management. Twenty percent of Caribbean capacity is coming from European marketss with an expanding fly cruise programmes.
John Weinstein shared “Now even against that backdrop, we continue to drive the business forward, underscoring the advantage of our diversified global portfolio. We are also continuing to successfully mitigate inflation through effective cost management. And again, with no ship deliveries for 2026, we don’t have the advantage of offsetting large cost increases with significant capacity growth.”
“We like the portfolio approach we’re taking even into the Caribbean because when you think about our mix and you look at the first quarter, 20 percent of our Caribbean capacity is actually from our European brands that have fly crew programs going into places like Barbados and Dominica, and it works very well for us.”
“And yes, we have successfully absorbed elevated supply in the Caribbean before and in Europe and Alaska many times over the last many decades. And it comes and it goes and it gets absorbed and we move along … on a rational basis we want to maintain price integrity in the market for us. And at the same time, making sure we get folks onboard that are happy and spending money not only in the ticket but onboard.”
