Articles tagged “viking”

Today's podcast looks at hotels' new business travel workaround, Viking's strong path to 2025, and industry accommodations for a boom in smaller-scale meetings and events.

While other travel brands say they see signs of a slowdown, Viking executives see a boom and no signs travelers want to cutback on cruises.

Today's podcast looks at American's reset, travel's highest salaries, and Viking's upbeat earnings report.

Viking, the only pure-play luxury cruise line, has reported its first quarterly earnings since it went public. The company is targeting a English-speakers over the age of 55, a demographic with most of the wealth and a broad eagerness to travel.

Wednesday's IPO will value Viking, an operator of luxury river and ocean cruises, at roughly $10 billion. Leaders in the luxury travel sector will be eyeing the move closely.

River cruising is evolving as the former niche grows to meet demand from cruisers who are tired of ocean cruising. Smaller companies can innovate and experiment in river cruising more readily than in ocean cruising, creating a diverse set of experiences for cruisers.

People who can afford river cruises are generally older and richer. As river cruise lines build more ships, they need to reach more appropriate prospective customers.

Neck-deep in growth and expansion, the future of Viking is still not clear, but it's recent move into the ocean business suggests Viking has the ambition to expand its brand into other sectors of the travel industry.

Viking has carved a profitable and influential niche in the river cruising business, but the success of parlaying that model has yet to be seen. We're betting the same focus that built its river company will also fuel ocean growth.

Striking a balance between introducing new regional dishes and still pleasing customers is a challenge that Viking has so far achieved, but going one step further to make sure the meals are as healthy and locally sourced as possible is one it is still working on.