Carnival Corp.’s fleet-wide advance bookings were down from last year in the period between the Costa Concordia accident and Feb. 26, according to a financial report the company released on Friday.

For Carnival Corp.’s lines other than Costa Cruises, booking volumes “are showing improving trends, but are still running high single digits behind the prior year at slightly lower prices,” the report stated.

The negative impact has been less on the company’s North American brands than on European brands, the report also noted.

For Costa, booking volumes during the same period are running “significantly behind the prior year at lower prices, however, Costa has curtailed virtually all of its marketing activities during this period.”

Expectations for 2012
Carnival’s expectations for 2012 will be affected by the direct and indirect consequences of the Concordia accident, according to the report. Cumulative advance bookings, excluding Costa, for the remainder of 2012 are approximately three occupancy points behind the prior year with prices slightly higher than last year’s levels. 

Pricing trends are maintaining enough strength that “consumers holding out for deeper than normal discounts may be disappointed,” stated Micky Arison, chaiman and CEO of Carnival Corp.

“Despite the slowdown in bookings, all of our North American brands are still experiencing a modest yield improvement, while our European brands, excluding Costa, are expecting to have slightly lower yields due in part to the slowing European economies,” he said.

Despite the Concordia disaster and the more recent engine room fire on the Costa Allegra, which has required Costa to replace the ship with the Costa Voyager, Arison said he is confident “that we will restore faith in the Costa brand.”