单选题 ·For each question 13—18, mark one letter (A. B, C or D) on your Answer
Sheet for the answer you choose.
{{B}}Cruise Ship: Where to Go{{/B}}
Passengers on cruise ship
holidays, as they are described on TV programs and films, usually appear to be
both wealthy and elderly. Such people do not, however, accurately represent the
6.8m passengers who took this kind of holiday last year. Over the last few years
the world cruise industry has concentrated on appealing to younger, less wealthy
people, giving them an experience more like a floating disco than the
traditional quiet holiday on a luxury ship. Even families with young children
are no longer so rare on cruise ships. Partly as a result, the number of
passengers taking a cruise has increased by an average of 8.5% a year since
1990. Cruise Star is now the world's largest cruise line. The other two major
companies are Intersail and Seaways. Together these three carry nearly half the
world's cruise passengers and make almost all the industry's profits. For the 30
or so smaller firms, life is much tougher. That is because sheer size brings so
many benefits to the large firms. They can negotiate bulk discounts on supplies
such as food and fuel, and even, if they order enough of them, on ships. A
secondary disadvantage for the smaller operators is that they cannot spread
overheads such as marketing as broadly. A significant part of the cost of
sending people on a cruise happens before they go on board the ship. The three
large companies between them spend more than $100m a year on TV advertising in
America. They employ armies of salesmen. Delivering passengers to the ship is
part of the package deal and, once again, volume means savings: Cruise Star is
the biggest single buyer of airline tickets in America. Cruise Star has ten
ships, with four more on order for delivery by 1999. Intersail is building at a
similar rate, hoping to expand today's fleet of ten ships to 14 by 1998. Seaways
will add three more ships to its present nine. The 30 ships on order throughout
the industry will increase cruising capacity by 40% by 1998. Some analysts
suspect that even the big companies will find it difficult to fill all those
extra cabins. They make a comparison with the overcapacity in the airline market
in the early 1990s, When aircraft ordered at a time of growth arrived during the
recession. And they point out that, after steady growth, the American market was
flat in 1995, with firms offering discounts up to 30% in order to fill
cabins. The big firms reckon that this pessimism is overdone. This year has
started well. But if the industry's outlook ends up being rougher than it hopes,
many smaller firms will face a choice: go for specialized business, go out of
business, or get taken over by a larger business. Already more than 40 small
companies offer an increasing variety of cruises, ranging from archaeological
tours of the Black Sea to ecological cruises to the Galapagos Islands. This
trend seems set to continue, although in fast-growing Asis, a few mid-sized
firms may one day rise to challenge the top three. However, in more established
markets, smaller firms are being squeezed out. For instance, Gentle Waves, which
has debts of $850m, has already been approached by Cruise Star, who wanted to
buy a majority share of the company. The negotiations came to nothing, but
analysts think they will revive if Gentle Waves' problems go on.
单选题
The main benefit the large firms have is that they can ______.