NORWEGIANCruise Line is expecting a 15% drop in revenue from the UKthis year after cutting back ex-UK capacity by 30%.
Head of sales for the UK and Continental Europe, Nick Sharps, said the decision was made because yields had been lower than expected in the southern Caribbean in 1998. He declined to give specificfigures.
Norwegian Sea, the 1,504-passenger ship which previously operated in the southern Caribbean, is being repositioned to sail out of Houston.
It is being replaced by Norwegian Dream, which can carry 1,726 passengers, but this ship will only sail in the region for a third of the time that Norwegian Sea did.
Sharps said that NCL was going to concentrate on selling cruises to Alaska and Scandinavia instead. He believes it will be possible to achieve higher yields in those destinations.
Last year, NCL targeted a growth in total UK sales of 70%. Sharps said the cruise line had actually achieved 65% growth, and managed to sell 97% of its programme. This represents just under 50,000 passengers.