Carnival Cruise Lines: Exploiting a Sea of Global Opportunity International business 13th ed.

Summary: This case describes the history of the cruise industry and defines it, then it talks about the current state of the Cruise industry, then it goes on to discusses the business in international waters, after that it states the main points in Carnival Cruise Line operations, finally it argues the overseas environment. SWOT Analysis: Strengths: 1. Carnival cruise lines is one of three major companies that has the share of 91% of the market and it is the largest of all three. 2. That being said it is very strong financially. 3. The financial strengths of carnival cruise line generates international connections that will be very helpful in this line of business. 4. Another point resulting from the financial strengths is the ability to cover their customers geographically being based in different countries. 5. The ability to target different segments hence it has different cruises with different costs. Threats: 1. The health problem that faced them in 2006 where a virus hit the cruise caused bad publicity which causes carnival to take the infected ship out of service which caused financial losses. 2. Any health epidemics causes carnival to avoid ports of the country infected which also can cause financial losses. 3. The weather causes a major threat which normally forces the company to cancel the trip giving full refunds to all customers , at the same time causing bad word of mouth and negative publicity 4. The prices of oil has increased the carnival fuel cost at the time where most potential customers want lower prices. 5. The global economic status which includes gasoline prices and mortgage interest rates has left people with too little extra income for taking cruises.