Carnival: Costa Concordia wreck could lower full year net income $175 million The recent sinking of the Costa Concordia has already caused cruise ship bookings to plummet, among other deleterious consequences, according to reports.

The Costa Concordia sank earlier in the month after it traveled into shallow seas. Tourists aboard the ship said that its sinking played out like that of the Titanic, with confused crew members directing passengers to remain in their seats – even as the boat began to split. The Wall Street Journal reports that Carnival Corp., which owns Costa, said the wreck would hurt the company's full year profit by more than $100 million.

Officials from Carnival are struggling to ascertain how they can fuel earnings this year amid a consumer backlash. Company executives said that passenger bookings fell in January, but they asserted they did not believe the wreck would affect its business model in the long-term.

In a regulatory filing, Carnival said it expects the wreck to significantly impact net income for the company's 2012 fiscal year, which ends on November 30. In total, the company estimated that the wreck would lower net income between $155 million and $175 million.

Analysts said the cruise company would likely implement business cost reduction measures in an effort to drive profitability. However, they noted Carnival's path toward profitability would be riddled with obstacles, as officials will have to decide where, exactly, to carry out such cost reduction initiatives. Carnival could rework spend management and indirect spend, some experts said, while others urged the travel company to consider shifting its supplier contract negotiation strategy.

Italy-based Costa does not account for a substantial portion of Carnival's overall business model, according to officials. Costa's entire fleet of ships makes up only 1.5 percent of Carnival's totally capacity, but analysts said the estimated cost of the wreckage has already surpassed $500 million. Travel experts further posited the company's revenue would take a hit this year as consumers could opt to travel on perceived safer cruise liners.

For its part, Carnival acknowledged bookings were down, but it said it remains optimistic about future growth.

"Costa's booking activity is difficult to interpret because of the significant re-booking activity stemming from the loss of the ship's use and related re-deployments," the company said in a statement. "However, we believe it to be down significantly. Despite these recent trends, we believe the incident will not have a significant long-term impact on our business."

 
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