One of the industries which was enjoying continuing growth was the cruise ship industry. There are a number of factors including the baby boom generation is retiring and many of them have the ability to go on cruises and like them. Having been on a cruise, there is much to enjoy – buffets of food, sit down dinners, entertainment of numerous types of entertainment offered, if the weather is warm – the opportunity to sit outside and watch the water and every second day landing at a different port to get off the ship on to dry land. One can easily imagine where the ship docks, the people of the country gear up to cater to the cruisers. A great deal of economy for and around the ship is created.

Carnival has a variety of ships in offerings and one of them is AIDA Cruises based in Germany. In early July, there was an article about AIDA in Dubai ready to cruise. One can remember back to March and hear the stories of which countries could the cruise ships dock in. There were a number of ships which no one wanted to allow to dock because of COVID cases, part of the reason was how the air conditioning system works. If COVID travels through the air, then once it gets into the air condition system everyone is a risk. AIDA announced it has introduced a number of measures to complement existing health and hygiene standards. The other large cruise lines – Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd are also enhancing standards. Will you go cruising soon?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every community around the world looks to the hospitality and entertainment world to add to their economy. In some places it can be sporting events or theme parks or festivals or something to bring people together to spend their money in the community. Most of us have gone to one or more events in our life times and we enjoy them, but in reality they are economic generators for the community or city. One hopes they will continue because they add enjoyment to our lives and give us something to talk about and plan and go to. At the moment, some companies benefit from COVID more than others, at some point there will be a change and things will begin to head back to normal. With the companies that benefit be over value? will the companies that did not benefit be undervalued? are there companies which can go through the cycle and have consistent earnings? there is always homework to be done which allows you to be prepared.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.