Carnival Cruise Lines

A. Pause Strategy (CI#1, 2, 3): Carnival Corp has been known for health and safety records, a key component in consumer decision-making in the cruise industry. In order to begin improvements, a pause strategy needs to be utilized to allow the company to take a step back from aggressive growth and focus more towards consumer necessities. Many complaints stem from issues like sanitization of rooms, quality of food, and ship malfunctions. Keying in on ship maintenance, restoration, and efficiency will significantly decrease the chance of malfunctions. While implementing more stringent and attentive guidelines towards guest amenities and conditions of food storage/quality to help increase consumer appeal.

Summary: The cruise line industry has been experiencing a period of massive expansion over the last decade thus heightening the competitive profile for the industry in terms of market share and competitive rivalry. Now cruise industry is one of the most competitive across all.

Top strengths that Carnival Corporation & plc has to their advantage would be their strong brand and major control of the market share. Containing a strong brand portfolio with a total of 10 well-known brands operating about 102 ships. Such brands include Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn in North America; AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Ibero Cruises, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK) under the Europe, Austrailia & Asia segments. Along with Holland America Princess Alaska Tour and the Canadian Yukon (Olarte, 2017). The company is also the largest cruise company in the world in terms of cruise passengers with a market share of about 47% followed by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd with a market share of 23% (Cederholm, 2015).

* High Capital Requirements: The capital required to start up a cruise line is one of the key factors contributing to this industry’s high barriers to entry. With the average cost of building a cruise ship rising, the amount of capital needed to start up a cruise line is estimated at one billion dollars. Therefore discouraging any new entrants into the industry.

There are both positive and negative impacts to cruising on different countries. Some can have a great affect on the ship and the area where the ship docks, others can have a negative affect on the cruise area itself and the people who live in and around the ports of call.

Carnival Cruise’s, Disney Cruises and Norwegian was the only other clear competitors to RCL but in terms of subsidiaries Crystal Cruises was the only direct rival in terms of size and scale and position in the industry but in analyzing the demand increase from 1999 to 2001 a 16.7% increase in demand showed that Celebrity cruises had to maintain their position as a luxury brand to continue being a major player in the industry. The demand was strong and the competition was average, as it relates to entries to market the cruise line industry requires multiple stipulations and regulations required thus unless one of the major players mentioned above acquired a smaller cruise line to increase in operations and services Celebrity’s position was relatively strategic and smart. The competitive landscape was relatively small so quality improvement process should be the main focus during this time, they already created the process needed to offer superior service thus tweaks such as management training, career progression programs and increases in standard of performance programs would set Celebrity’s consistent quality assurance position in the industry to better

The economic climate has a strong impact on the cruise line industry. However, the cruise line industry is growing and more people are traveling today then ever before. As welfare of people has considerably grown despite all possible crises in world economy, anyhow many economic factors are influence to cruise line industry, such as clientele's economic positions, growth in markets, currencies rates when working international and inflation plays a role. Operators of a cruise will be affected under management and operational levels. If fuel price begins to increase, then it will influence operational costs of the company. If interest rates increase then, then it will influence the income of the company. Economic factor plays a major role for the company to be afloat of cruise industry.

Over the years the cruise industry has seen remarkable growths across the country. Several different ports have seen an increase in ships, which increases the amount of passengers have grown. When ships, and passengers increase it can only benefit the cruise industry in a whole. Means more profits, jobs, and the economy will thrive.

In summary, the low price sensitivity, low buyer concentration and the leadership of Carnival in the cruise industry on one hand enhances the buyer power while a high degree of involvement of travel agency on the other reduces their bargaining power, the power of buyer of the buyers in the cruise line market of Carnival is moderate.

There are large barriers of entry into the cruise businesses. Ships are extremely costly and time consuming to build.

There are nine main cruise line, these include Ambassador International, Carnival Corporation, Crystal Cruises, Disney Cruise Lines, Louis Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Silversea Cruises and Star Cruises (Cruising). The major cruises out of these are Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corporation. These cruises line are known for using their popularity to their advantage by raising their prices at any given time. But on the other hand, all the ships are comparable. All passage can anticipate the equivalent experience on board. In addition Rivalry is at a peek because getting rid of a cruise industry cost more than to just keep into development.

A few international differences affect the operations of cruise lines. Differences include political/legal, geographic, economic, or sociocultural. Since cruise lines are an international business, they are affected by these differences. Many cruise lines choose to flag their vessels in countries that have “lower taxes and less stringent employment practices required by the laws of those countries” (The Cruise). However, some governments may choose to subsidize the ship industry in order to secure contracts for their domestic firms. Many ships are built in order to be appealing to the eye, but with cruise ships going to so many different places, they have to be designed not only to accommodate the economic reality of the mass market, but also the cultural preferences of the clientele.

These two benefits alone save the cruise line immense amounts of money. Since they are not US companies, they are not bound by the laws other US businesses are such as employment taxes and minimum wage for their employees (Cruise Line International Association, 2012). They are also not subject to corporate income taxes, however they still must pay the going port fee whenever their ship docks. Another financial benefit stems from the building of their ships. Many times, the country in which the ship is being built will donate millions of dollars to the project tin order to facilitate jobs. This is a huge savings to the cruise line industry and helps maintain their costs.

Carnival Cruise Lines is the largest cruise company in North America and carries more than 60,000 passengers a week. The Carnival experience is the standard against what past cruisers judge their later cruise experiences. Carnival has captured the "fun" psychographic and has a strong reputation for an enjoyable, relaxed cruise. Furthermore, Carnival has a strong market expansion strategy for selling the mass-market cruise category and first-time cruisers. They have a clear vision and knowledge about the industry and a commitment to their brand essence, which is fun. Also, as an extension to their branding of the "fun" ships they are the low-price leaders. Because of their strong brand image they are able to achieve double-digit growth in

In 1822, the very first cruise line, known as the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, was founded by Brodie McGhie Willcox and Arthur Anderson, both experienced in the shipping industry. Its first ship was the 206 ton paddle steamer called the William Fawcett, which was first deployed in 1835 from London to Spain and Portugal. More recently, in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, three of the world’s largest cruise lines were established. The first one, Norwegian Cruise Line, was introduced when airline travel was becoming increasingly popular. The cruise industry declined significantly from this competition. The second cruise line, Royal Caribbean International, was also experiencing the same challenges as