Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL) Heads to Cuba
Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world’s largest travel and leisure company, today announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Commerce granted approval for the company to begin travel to Cuba. Carnival Corporation intends to take travelers to Cuba beginning in May 2016 via its newly launched fathom brand – a new social impact travel brand providing purpose-oriented, social impact experiences, initially in the Dominican Republic.
Carnival Corporation intends to operate fathom travel itineraries directly to Cuba for the purpose of providing cultural, artistic, faith-based and humanitarian exchanges between American and Cuban citizens. Authorized under current U.S.-to-Cuba travel guidelines, the new Cuban itineraries on fathom will strictly comply with U.S. Department of Treasury rules that allow licensed travel companies to transport approved travelers to Cuba to engage in activities that support the Cuban people. Carnival Corporation is in active discussions and plans to work with the appropriate authorities in Cuba so that Cuban approval is granted.
Launched June 4th as Carnival Corporation’s 10th global brand, fathom is designed as a purpose-driven brand to enrich the lives of its travelers and in the case of the Dominican Republic, drive sustainable social impact on a significant scale. The brand expects to attract 37,000 annual travelers who collectively could spend a total of more than 100,000 days a year either volunteering or immersing in educational and cultural exchanges in local communities.
Beginning in April 2016, fathom will embark on weekly seven-day voyages from Port Miami aboard the MV Adonia, a 710-passenger vessel redeployed from Carnival Corporation’s P&O Cruises (UK) brand. fathom’s first impact destination will be the northern region of the Dominican Republic, where Carnival Corporation’s new port of call, Amber Cove, will serve as home base.
Following the inaugural April month of voyages to the Dominican Republic, fathom intends to offer both Dominican and Cuban itineraries on a systematic and regular basis, giving travelers the opportunity to choose from two destinations and a range of activities from social impact in the Dominican Republic and educational and cultural exchanges in both countries designed to have a positive, transformative effect on the lives of the travelers.
“We are excited about receiving U.S. approval as the very important first step to ultimately take travelers to Cuba under the existing 12 criteria for authorized travel. We look forward to working with the Cuban authorities for their approval to help make the social, cultural and humanitarian exchanges between U.S. citizens and the people of Cuba a reality,” said Arnold Donald, President and CEO of Carnival Corporation. “We know there is strong demand from travelers who want to immerse themselves in Cuban culture, so this is a historic opportunity for us to enable more people to experience Cuban society. It is also an important opportunity for our new fathom brand to expand its positive influence in the world with this potential to add full-week immersion sailings to Cuba to its already planned full-week social-impact itineraries to the Dominican Republic beginning in the spring of 2016.”
Tara Russell, president of fathom and global impact lead for Carnival Corporation, added: “We’re incredibly excited and humbled by this potential opportunity to help travelers experience the amazing beauty and culture of Cuba, while being able to provide educational and cultural exchange activities that will benefit both the traveler and the Cuban people. After establishing the Dominican Republic as our first partner destination, Cuba represents an important step for us to expand our ability to offer meaningful and enriching experiences to purpose-driven travelers. Our goal remains the same for both destinations – to enable travelers to immerse, learn, serve and flourish while making enduring, sustainable contributions on a scalable and systematic basis. We are looking forward to building what we intend to be a beautiful and lasting friendship with the Cuban people.”
Led by Russell’s strong background in social entrepreneurship, fathom seeks to develop lasting social impact partnerships that allow for meaningful personal enrichment of the traveler, while providing systematic, long-term educational, environmental and economic development benefits in its partner countries.
“We’re very interested in exploring the prospects of expanding our partnership with fathom to include Cuba, building new impact programs and lending our assistance to strengthen existing initiatives that will help educational, cultural and humanitarian efforts already going on in Cuba,” said David Luther, founder and executive director of IDDI, a non-profit organization with the mission to help alleviate poverty in rural and urban areas in the Caribbean. “IDDI has long-standing relationships in Cuba and more than a decade of experience working on the ground side-by-side with local officials to make a positive impact in Cuban communities. Nothing else like fathom exists to bring hundreds of like-minded travelers a week to communities of people who need ongoing support. With fathom and its travelers, the potential for making a lasting impact in people’s lives is tremendous. We look forward to partnering closely with fathom to take our programs to the next level, and support growth and prosperity for the citizens of Cuba.”
Travelers may reserve travel on future fathom voyages
Prices for the seven-day trip to the Dominican Republic start at $1,540 per person, which includes an exterior cabin with a view, all meals on the ship, onboard social impact immersion experiences, three on-shore social impact activities and related supplies, taxes, fees, and port expenses. Prices will vary by season.
Prices for seven-day itineraries to Cuba start at $2,990 per person, excluding taxes, port and other government and related fees, and including all meals on the ship, onboard social impact immersion experiences and certain on-the-ground cultural immersion activities.
Carnival Corporation, incorporated on November 21, 1974, is a cruise vacation company. The Company has three cruise segments that consist of North America cruise brands, Europe, Australia & Asia (EAA) cruise brands and Cruise Support. In addition, it also has a Tour and Other segment. Its North America segment cruise brands include Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises (Princess) and Seabourn. Its EAA segment cruise brands include AIDA Cruises (AIDA), Costa Cruises (Costa), Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (United Kingdom). Its Cruise Support segment includes its cruise port and related facilities located in Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands, Roatan, Honduras and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. In addition to its cruise operations, it owns Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, a tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. As of January 22, 2015, its tour company owns and operates 12 hotels or lodges, over 300 motorcoaches and 20 glass-domed rail cars. The tour company and three cruise ships, the former Costa Celebration, Costa Europa and Grand Holiday comprise of the Company’s Tour and Other segment as of January 22, 2015.
The Company is also involved in the development, enhancement and/or financing of Government-owned and operates cruise port facilities in Cape Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida; Galveston, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City, New York; San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Maarten, Kingdom of the Netherlands. It also operates, leased or owned port facilities or had interests in joint ventures that operate leased or owned port facilities in Barcelona, Spain; Civitavecchia, Naples, Savona and Trieste, Italy; Hamburg, Germany; Juneau, Alaska; Long Beach, California and Marseilles, France for the benefit of its cruise brands. The Company also operates, leased or owned port facilities that it develops as destinations in Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands and Roatan, Honduras, which are all included in its Cruise Support segment, as well as private island destinations in The Bahamas, Half Moon Cay and Princess Cays, primarily for the benefit of its North America cruise brands. It owns a 40% interest in Grand Bahamas Shipyard Ltd. (GBSL), which is the cruise ship dry-dock repair facility, to support its ship repair and maintenance programs.
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Cruise Line is the provider of year-round cruises in The Bahamas, the Caribbean and Mexico and also operates seasonal cruises in New England and Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and the Panama Canal. Carnival Cruise Line offers cruises from three to eight days with almost all of its ships departing from 14 United States home ports located along the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf and West coasts. In 2014, Carnival Cruise Line introduced the Carnival LIVETM concert series, which is an onboard offering that brings the live music entertainment to the seas.
Princess Cruises
Princess is a cruise line in international and exotic destinations, including Europe, Australia, Asia, the Panama Canal, Hawaii and South America. Some of Princess’ Caribbean cruise offerings include Princess Cays, which is located on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas. Princess operates a fleet of 18 ships. Princess offers 150 itineraries to more than 300 destinations, with cruises from seven to 15 days with sailings ranging from 28 to 104 days, including one world cruise.
Holland America Line
Holland America Line operates a fleet of 15 mid-sized ships. Holland America Line offers almost 500 cruises to over 400 ports in almost 100 countries and territories on all seven continents.
Seabourn
Seabourn provides cruising vacations on smaller ships. As of November 30, 2014, it operates three ships, which have between 450 and 458 passenger-capacity, and two 208-passenger capacity ships.
P&O Cruises (UK)
P&O Cruises (UK) operates a fleet of seven premium ships that vary in size from 700 to 3,100 lower berths. Three of its ships offer holidays for adults while the other ships for families. P&O Cruises (UK)’s ships visit over 200 destinations across the world. In the summer, P&O Cruises (UK) also offers seven or 14 day voyages departing from Venice and Genoa, Italy and sailing in the Mediterranean. In the winter, the line offers cruises in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and world cruises.
Cunard
The Cunard line operates three premium/luxury ships, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. Majority of Cunard’s cruises are from seven to 14 days with three world cruises of over 100 days.
Costa Cruises
Costa is Europe’s cruise line based on guests carried and passenger capacity. Costa operates a fleet of 15 contemporary ships. Costa offers 150 different itineraries, with cruises from seven to 11 days.
AIDA Cruises
AIDA’s product is offered for German-speaking guests and includes a German-speaking crew, as well as German-style food and entertainment. AIDA’s ships include a variety of informal and formal dining options, including buffets, grills and restaurants.
P&O Cruises (AUSTRALIA)
P&O Cruises (Australia) ships offer cruises from three day themed seabreaks to ten day explorer trips for guests of all ages. P&O Cruises (Australia) sails to more South Pacific Island destinations. In addition, remote parts of Papua New Guinea are also included in their itineraries. P&O Cruises (Australia) also offers year round itineraries to Australia’s coast line and New Zealand.
The Company competes with RCCL, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd. (NCL) and MSC Cruises.
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