Carnival Corporation was incorporated in Panama in 1972 and Carnival plc was
incorporated in England and Wales in 2000. Carnival Corporation and Carnival
plc operate a dual listed company (“DLC”), whereby the businesses
of Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc are combined through a number of contracts
and through provisions in Carnival Corporation’s Articles of Incorporation
and By-Laws and Carnival plc’s Articles of Association. The two companies
operate as if they are a single economic enterprise with a single senior executive
management team and identical Boards of Directors, but each has retained its
separate legal identity. Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc are both public
companies with separate stock exchange listings and their own shareholders.
We are the largest global cruise company and one of the largest vacation companies
in the world. We have a portfolio of 12 of the worlds most widely recognized
cruise brands and are the leading provider of cruises to all major destinations
outside the Far East.
Our mission is to take the world on vacation and deliver exceptional experiences
that appeal to a large variety of consumers, all at an outstanding value. We
believe our multi-brand strategy is essential to achieving our mission and maintaining
our leadership positions. Our ten unique brands with worldwide sourcing of guests
and diverse itinerary options allow us to expand our offerings to our ever increasing
past guest customer base, while continuing to grow our business through the
acquisition of new guests in established and emerging markets. Our success also
depends on our ability to understand our guests’ needs and consistently
exceed their expectations by providing them with a wide variety of exceptional
vacation experiences. We strive to capture a greater share of consumers’
spending on vacations by providing extraordinary cruise products and services,
all at an outstanding value.
Cruising offers a broad range of products and services to suit vacationing
guests of many ages, backgrounds and interests. Cruise brands can be broadly
classified as offering contemporary, premium and luxury cruise experiences.
The contemporary experience typically includes cruises that last seven days
or less, have a more casual ambiance and are less expensive than premium or
luxury cruises. The premium experience typically includes cruises that last
from seven to 14 days and appeal to the more experienced cruise guest who is
usually more affluent and older. Premium cruises emphasize quality, comfort,
style, more destination-focused itineraries and the average pricing is normally
higher than contemporary cruises. The luxury experience is usually characterized
by smaller vessel size, very high standards of accommodation and service, higher
prices and exotic itineraries to ports that are inaccessible to larger ships.
We have product and service offerings in each of these three broad classifications.
Notwithstanding these classifications, there generally is overlap and competition
among all cruise products and services.
In addition to our cruise operations, we operate two tour companies under
the brand names Holland America Tours and Princess Tours, which primarily complement
their respective cruise operations. These tour companies are the leading cruise/tour
operators in the State of Alaska and the Canadian Yukon and currently, market
and operate:
- -'17 hotels or lodges in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, with approximately
2,714 guest rooms;
- -'over 500 motorcoaches used for sightseeing and charters in the States of
Washington and Alaska and in British Columbia, Canada and the Canadian Yukon;
- -'over 20 domed rail cars which are run on the Alaska Railroad between Anchorage
and Fairbanks;
- -'two luxury dayboats offering tours to the glaciers of Alaska and the Yukon
River; and
- -'sightseeing packages, or individual components of such packages, sold
either separately or as part of our cruise/tour packages to our Alaska
bound cruise passengers and to other vacationers.
We sell our cruises mainly through travel agents. Our individual cruise brands
relationships with their travel agents is generally independent of each of our
other brands. These travel agent relationships are not exclusive and most travel
agents also sell cruises and other vacations provided by our competitors. Our
policy towards travel agents is to train and motivate them to support our products
with competitive sales and pricing policies and joint marketing programs. We
also use a wide variety of marketing techniques, including websites, seminars
and videos, to familiarize the agents with our cruise brands and products. As
with our brands travel agent relationships, each of our brands marketing programs
are generally independent of each of our other brands. In each of our principal
markets, we have familiarized the travel agency community with our cruise brands
and products.
We compete with land-based vacation alternatives throughout the world, including,
among others, resorts, hotels, theme parks and vacation ownership properties
located in Las Vegas, Nevada, Orlando, Florida, various Caribbean, Mexican,
Bahamian and Hawaiian Island destination resorts and numerous other vacation
destinations throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Our primary cruise competitors in the contemporary and/or premium cruise segments
for North American sourced passengers are Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which
owns Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, Star Cruises plc,
which owns Norwegian Cruise Line and Orient Lines, and Disney Cruise Line.
Our primary cruise competitors for European sourced passengers are MyTravels
Sun Cruises, Fred Olsen, Saga and Thomson in the UK; Festival Cruises, Hapag-Lloyd,
Peter Deilmann, Phoenix Reisen and Transocean Cruises in Germany; and Mediterranean
Shipping Cruises, Louis Cruise Line, Festival Cruises and Spanish Cruise Line
in southern Europe. We also compete for passengers throughout Europe with Norwegian
Cruise Line, Orient Lines, Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises.
Our primary competitors in the luxury cruise segment for our Cunard, Seabourn
and Windstar brands include Crystal Cruises, Radisson Seven Seas Cruise Line
and Silversea Cruises.
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