Viking Cruise Line
Viking is a cruise line providing river, ocean, and expedition cruises. Its operating headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland, and its marketing headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company has three divisions, Viking River Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, and Viking Expeditions.
The company has three divisions, Viking River Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, and Viking Expeditions. As of February 2020, it operates a fleet of 76 river vessels and 6 ocean ships, offering cruises along the rivers and oceans of North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Russia, Egypt, China, and Southeast Asia.
The company was established by Torstein Hagen in St. Petersburg, Russia as Viking River Cruises in 1997. Hagen had become involved in cruising as a McKinsey and Co. consultant who helped the Holland America Line survive the 1973 oil crisis, then was briefly CEO of Royal Viking Line in the early 1980s, made money in the Russian private equity markets, then bought a controlling stake in a Dutch shipping company that failed in the mid-1990s, leaving him almost bankrupt. In 1997, Hagen helped some Russian oligarchs buy a shipping company, and in exchange, they sold him four river cruise ships cheaply, which became the founding fleet of Viking River Cruises.
