It can take five years for the first order of cruise ship made from the Chinese shipyard, and another five years for the delivery, predicts Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Arnold Donald. He spoke to Cruise Business after a panel discussion at the Society of American Travel Writers’ Editors Council conference in Miami today.
“Carnival wants to be part of cruise shipbuilding in China,” Donald said. We want to ensure the ships are built on current standards of quality and safety, he explained.
Currently Carnival Corporation & plc has a total of nine ships on order from Italian and Japanese shipyards, and it’s also close to finalizing orders for another nine ships from the German, Finnish and Italian shipyards. These nine ships will be delivered between 2019 and 2022, and will implement new cost efficiencies. The new classes of ships under planning stage will also offer bigger proportion of balcony cabins.
As far as China is concerned, which Donald said could become a largest cruise market in the future, Carnival’s brands (Costa and Princess) are currently the market leaders. “Currently we have 2.5 million cruise days in China compared to our closest competitor Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. with 1.8 million,” he said. Earlier this week Costa Cruises announced it will deploy the 2,720-passenger Costa Fortuna to China next year and this week it also celebrated the arrival of 3,004-passenger Costa Serena to Shanghai.
