Viking River Cruises Builds an Empire Around Baby Boomers

The Viking Europe — photo from Viking River Cruises

In a previous post  I talked about how Viking River Cruises, the world’s largest river cruise line, is branching out into the realm of ocean cruising, using much the same successful model they’ve used to build a river cruise empire around the globe.

Today I want to talk about the customers they’ve built that river cruise empire around: baby boomers.

In an informative article in Travel Weekly, detailing a press conference that marked the naming of ten new Viking Longships this spring, Viking’s chairman and CEO Torstein Hagen was blunt about his target market: “people with some curiosity, who have worked hard and earned some money. They haven’t had time to see these places — and not just see, but experience the culture. They’re grown-up people. They speak English. They are 55-plus.”

Hagen then continued to say, “We have… Continue reading →