If Royal Caribbean is the cruise industry’s Usain Bolt, sprinting toward global dominance and outperforming expectations along the way, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is a former world champion who keeps glancing up at the scoreboard.
During back-to-back second quarter earnings reports, Royal Caribbean leaders touted “continued strength and demand for our leading vacation brands” and dismissed geopolitical headwinds as modest. Norwegian leadership attributed declining net yields to a “challenging backdrop” and bemoaned demand challenges that it blamed on marketing.
Both companies actually beat expectations for the quarter itself. The divergence is in what comes next.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Luxury Travel Advisor.
