Cruises and Recovery

Esterl, M. (2010). Carnival poised to ride a wave of recovery. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704896104575139770082534464.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us_business

This article is published on WSJ.com Web site, and reports that the cruise industry’s move toward higher pricing is an indicator that the economy is recovering. Carnival Corporation, operator of 11 cruise lines, believes they have gained some pricing power because there has been a spike in reservation bookings in the past few months. They say the consumers have a lot of pent-up demand because many of them skipped their vacations last year to save money. Rich Tucker with CruiseDeals.com says that prices for trips between June and August 2010 are up by about 27% compared to the same period last year. This information is important to managers, even if they are not working in the leisure travel industry, because these types of indicators can point toward economic recovery and managers in almost all industries need to be ready to take advantage of the recovery as it happens.