Viking’s CEO Torstein Hagen, speaking on Viking’s fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call, highlighted that Viking has four river vessels in Europe that are currently dedicated to the Chinese market.

According to Hagen, the four river vessels have Chinese staff (and) Chinese food.

“The captains and the nautical people are good … they know the way up and down the rivers,” he said. “This has taken a little bit of time, but it can, of course, become a potentially significant source of business.”

When speaking about China as a focus for Viking, Hagen said: “We don’t make a big splash about it, but you know, it’s obviously a huge market, and we have our operation there (joint venture with China Merchants).”

Hagen also said that the company has a philosophy that is different from most other cruise lines.

He said: “If you go on a Viking ship, the ones we normally go on, (it’s) English only onboard.

“If you go on the Chinese-speaking ships, it’s Mandarin only onboard and largely Chinese food. They come to places to experience the history and culture around the river, and then they want to come home and be in comfort on our ships,” he added. “And that is probably more of an opportunity than anything else we have.

“It’s not easy because we are again marketing directly to the Chinese consumer, which is quite gutsy, but that is our belief,” Hagen noted.