Viking CEO’s Luxury Cruise Strategy: No Private Destinations, No ‘Opulence’
Photo Credit: Viking Longship Mani, Expeditions ship Viking Polaris and Viking ocean ship Venus on the North Sea Canal, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Viking
Skift Take
Viking CEO Torstein Hagen isn't afraid to chart his own course. A strategy of no kids, no casinos, and no private islands makes his cruise brand distinctive.
While major cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, Carnival, MSC, and Norwegian race to acquire private islands and build artificial destinations in the Caribbean for resort-style shore days, Viking is heading in the opposite direction.
To Torstein Hagen, Viking’s founder and CEO, the industry's latest fad, private destinations, is a pursuit of the synthetic.
“If you don’t have any real experiences, you create artificial islands,” Hagen said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not the product we like to be known for.”
The company avoids the Caribbean for the most part, deploying only 4% of its capacity there. Instead, it prioritizes destinations in the Nordic countries and the Mediterranean, where he believes existing destinations offer enriching experiences. Most of Viking's upcoming new capacity will add density to proven routes rather than be deployed in new markets.
The formula shows promise. About 70% of Viking's core
