TUI AG and Carnival Corporation have both decided to abandon any plans to create a joint venture cruise company due to the “extremely difficult environment with regards to competitive law” a statement announced.
"TUI and Carnival have, therefore, decided not to implement the joint venture in the proposed form."
Carnival said that "as a result of the regulatory and tax issues Carnival and TUI have agreed not to proceed with the proposed joint venture but will continue to explore other opportunities” Carnival Cruise has confirmed that they will however, continue development in Germany via a new ship construction for its AIDA and Costa brands.
TUI AG will instead continue with its original plans of expanding cruise ventures with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, which already operates four ships. TUI Travel which is a subsidiary of TUI AG operates five ships of its own via Thomson Cruises and has an interest with a further two under Island Cruises following the merger with First Choice Holidays. TUI Travel earlier this week announced that the merger of First Choice Holidays and the Thomson Holidays has been successfully completed, with the results of a review of its businesses to be announced in January. The review will take place in order to decide which areas it will focus on and whether the sale of units is necessary.
