Viking are now preparing to launch their highly anticipated first ocean vessel, the Viking Star, in April but it would appear that plans for future ocean ships are already in the works!
Speaking from a news conference aboard the one of Viking’s twelve new river ships, the Viking Skirnir, Viking chairman Torstein Hagen announced Viking’s plans to build another six river cruise ships for 2016 – half the amount they introduced this year!
One of Hagen’s reasons for the smaller amount of river ships being introduced is that Viking are very excited about expanding into ocean cruising; “We’re making space for some of our ocean cruisers, we want to make sure that’s at least as great a success as the rivers.”
Hagen is willing to admit that river cruising isn’t expanding as rapidly this year as it has done in previous years, but that does not shake the chairman’s confidence in the slightest; “We’ve been very fortunate, we’ve had tough times along the way. We’ve now in an extremely solid financial position. We have money coming out of our ears.”
Hagen also suggested that he would ideally like a fleet of at least ten ocean vessels, with a more ambitious number set for Viking’s river fleet, with Hagen saying 100 river ships would be a “nice goal.”
Viking are already dominating rivers, but do you think they could dominate the oceans too?
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