Carnival, TUI, Desert Gold - A total upswing or is it all over again?

Carnival plc - AIDA is sailing again. Mardi Gras is coming!

Things are slowly looking up at cruise specialist Carnival plc. The world's largest provider of travel on water plans to resume its first Alaska cruises in July. This would mark the first time that the northernmost state in the US has been served by sea since the pandemic began.

The dual-headquartered UK and US Company said Carnival's Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line brands each plan to deploy a ship for round-trip sailings from Seattle this season. Specifically, the Alaska cruises will only be available to guests who have received their last dose of an approved Covid-19 vaccine at least 14 days before the start of the ocean voyage and can provide proof of vaccination. So, for the first time in the US, traveler selection based on vaccination status is now coming to light. Hear-hear, testing is no longer being handled here. Those who want to travel must be vaccinated!

AIDA Cruises has set dates for Baltic Sea cruises from Warnemünde, and the showpiece Carnival Mardi Gras will be operating again from July 31, 2021. Despite confused public regulations, the cruise industry wants to be revived as much as possible. Carnival shares have recovered 140% since selling off at EUR 8.88 in July 2020 and are currently hovering between EUR 21 and EUR 22. Despite all the opening euphoria, one should not forget that Carnival will continue to post losses for at least 2 more years. Whether the booking level of 2017/18 can ever be reached again is also highly doubtful. Still 80% of the ships are in the ports or dry docks. We, therefore, advise caution at this level!

TUI - The golden summer of 2021

The summer turnaround is in full swing for the TUI share. Both vacation destinations and case numbers from Covid-19 show that travel is possible again. It seems to be an offer that many experience-hungry consumers are evidently happy to accept. According to statements from tourism offices, the booking situation is strong to exuberant, yet there is still capacity.

The coming quarterly figures should show how strong the operational turnaround is at TUI AG. The head of Germany behind TUI shares, Marek Andryszak, commented on some operational developments to the dpa news agency. He spoke of the summer vacation catch-up being in full swing, with momentum increasing daily. There are currently very strong booking weeks, which since May are even above the bookings of the pre-Corona year 2019. The most popular vacation destinations are up by double digits. There is also a qualitative component: Accordingly, consumers are willing to spend more money for nicer hotels or better categories. The average volume of bookings is around 25% higher than the previous level.

The fact that this summer will be a golden summer for travel agencies should not come as a surprise given the catch-up effects. Since some hotel capacities in the vacation destinations ended up in bankruptcy, this ultimately leads to very high occupancy rates in the remaining locations.

Overall, this is a positive outlook for the TUI share; there is operational relief at last. Now it remains to be seen how strong the summer turnaround will be in the figures. The only question today is whether this has perhaps not already been priced in. The TUI share has almost tripled as calculated from below, but the pre-crisis level is still just as far away. We would currently continue to hold stocks and secure the critical level of EUR 4.50 with a stop.

Desert Gold Ventures - Destination Africa for gold and travel

The African continent captivates by many characteristics, which lift it internationally into the limelight. In addition to exciting coasts, deserts, and intact ancient forests, the continent is also home to the largest proportion of precious metals ever mined and rare raw materials such as cobalt. Massive oil deposits are located on the Atlantic coast. The north and the south are also perfect vacation destinations. International commodity companies have been trying their luck in politically unstable areas for a long time, e.g. in Mali/West Africa.

Desert Gold Ventures is a Canadian gold exploration and development company that focuses on deposits in the African state of Mali. Many major players are active there, some of them in the direct vicinity of Desert Gold Ventures. The country ranks 4th in gold deposits, and its government is friendly to mining companies, which are regularly willing to create new jobs in this politically difficult country.

The Canadians currently own a 410 square kilometer property called SMSZ, which is the most extensive contiguous non-producing land package in this region of the country. Desert unveiled new gold exploration targets from its project in early June. The Company's overall exploration program for 2021 is now more than 75% complete. The goal of all efforts is to develop a stand-alone Tier 1 gold deposit. To date, Gourbassi West has produced some of the best drill results on the property, with intercepts of up to 3.52 grams per tonne gold over 33 meters totaling 3 kilometers. The results show good potential for a robust gold system along this geological feature.

Desert Gold Ventures has fully funded its drill program and can look forward with confidence. The project offers very high surprise potential due to its nature. Investors are currently able to get the Desert share at CAD 0.17; the discount to the high at CAD 0.35 is currently probably due to the weakening gold price of now under USD 1,800.