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Buoyed by a strong Wave season, Carnival Corp. raised its earnings guidance for 2017 by 15 cents a share over what it expected to earn at the end of December.
In a conference call with analysts to discuss first-quarter results, Carnival CFO David Bernstein said the booking curve continues to lengthen, meaning more cruises are sold further ahead of their departure dates than the previous year.
“It was an excellent Wave season, so we felt confident to raise the guidance,” Bernstein said.
Carnival said it expects to earn between $2.54 billion and $2.68 billion this year when income is adjusted for factors not considered relevant on Wall Street.
In the first quarter, Carnival reported net income of $352 million, up from $142 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.79 billion from $3.65 billion.
Carnival and other cruise companies earn the bulk of their profits in the third quarter.
There were few trouble spots in Carnival’s report, with advanced bookings “well ahead at considerably higher prices,” Bernstein said.
About the only cloud was the inability to take Chinese guests to South Korea because of tensions over the deployment of a new missile defense system in South Korea. Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said the earnings guidance for the year assumes that the situation will persist throughout 2017. “We’re doing our best to forecast it,” he said. “We’ve had disruptions before.”
Donald said that if China would resume allowing travel agencies to sell travel to South Korea, Carnival could put the Korean ports back on its itineraries relatively quickly because it has substituted sea days in many cases.
Sоurсе: travelweekly.com