• 7 min de lectura
• 7 min de lectura
2026 has been complicated for cruise operators with the Iran war, oil prices, macroeconomic challenges, low-water issues in Europe and growing noise around the upcoming US midterm elections.
With two decades of company experience and mentoring by Torstein Hagen, Viking CEO Leah Talactac takes it all in stride.
"Our consumer continues to show resiliency," Talactac said in a wide-ranging interview with Seatrade Cruise News aboard Viking Mars in New York. Everybody's susceptible to the news cycle, she noted. Pre-pandemic, when issues arose, people waited things out and eventually came around.
"This year we've seen them pause, but they don't pause for quite as long," Talactac said. "They wait, digest the news cycle and then they come back. They're just more resilient.
"Also, we're a marketing company, able to generate our own demand. When we engage the consumer, they respond."
Viking's second quarter outperformed, beating revenue and profit forecasts, and 2026 is essentially sold out, at higher rates, along with 53% of 2027 capacity booked (as of August), at even higher rates.
Low-water issues in Europe will figure into Q3. In mid-August, half of Viking's river cruises had been impacted, with 10% to 12% of customers on those canceling and the company proactively doling out future cruise vouchers to people whose experience probably wasn't up to their expectations.
Since then, rain has helped open many choke points.
"There was a period of time we were able to operate on the Rhine uninterrupted but since then there have been disruptions. It's pretty dynamic, with changes depending on how much rainfall they get," Talactac said. "There's still some disruption." Every year may have isolated water issues; in 2026 there were many.
Investors have asked if this hurts river cruising's reputation.
Talactac isn't worried because following prior challenging seasons in 2018 and 2022, the river booking curves were "very strong. After 2022, '23 was a strong year and 2024 an even stronger year," she said. "What we've found is while there may be short-term noise, the guest typically rebounds faster and they book again."
Talactac stressed Viking's 30 years of river experience, through low and high water periods, its deployment agility and the advantage of a large fleet of identical ships, facilitating swaps when needed.
"If there's a choke point where they meet the middle, we move guests from one to the other and they're in their identical stateroom and the ship turns around and goes on. So, for the guest, their journey is uninterrupted," she said.
Viking has big capacity increases this year and next. In 2026, there's more growth in the river sector, while 2027 has more ocean growth.
From a river perspective, Viking holds more than a 50% market share, and the strategy is to remain dominant in the outbound North American market.
"When we think about our growth engine, we're about 27% of the ocean luxury market and that is where we believe we can contnue to make inroads into the market share," Talactac said. "We believe it's an underserved segment of the cruise industry so that's really where you'll see us start to build."
Based on the company's committed orderbook, Viking expects to take delivery of 19 additional river vessels by 2028, 11 ocean ships by 2032 and two expedition ships by 2031.
With these, the fleet will number 114 river vessels in 2028 and 28 ocean and expedition ships in 2032.
Asked about reports of Mediterranean Shipping Co. potentially acquiring a majority stake in the Meyer Group's German yards, including Neptun Werft where Viking builds its Longships, Talactac cited her company's "very long history" with Meyer resulting in nearly 100 vessels.
"We have a combination of committed ship orders and options through 2032 so we believe Meyer yard will continue to be our shipbuilder through that period, and we are in active dialogue with them," she said, adding it's too early to speculate what could happen if another cruise operator takes over the facility.
Also, MSC's Explora Journeys just confirmed it's getting into river cruising with a letter of intent for newbuilds at Den Breejen shipyard in the Netherlands.
To that, Talactac concurred with Hagen's usual response about river newcomers — that Viking is so far ahead.
With Viking sitting on $4b in cash, management is often asked about opportunities for acquisitions, and Talactac has talked about sticking to three guiding principles: Is it scalable? Is it margin accretive? Is it complementary and within the brand ethos?
Any investment would "really have to move the needle," she said. "We want to be thoughtful about any inorganic growth because we have a strong orderbook. We have strong organic growth. And we don't want to take on something that would distract management but not really move the needle from a P&L perspective."
Staying true to its customers' interest in destination immersion, Viking recently invested to develop Zeppelin airship excursions in Germany and new pre- and post-cruise extensions like the St. Moritz, Lombardy and Alpine Train.
Over decades cruise industry executives have talked about booking cycle disruptions in election years.
In Viking's experience, midterm elections — like those coming soon in the US — are "not necessarily" impactful, according to Talactac. However, presidential elections "distract people," so in those years, Viking historically built up a base of business earlier. The US is still two years away from the presidential election.
After Viking bought back its former China joint-venture ship, Viking Yidun was reflagged to Norway and redeployed on a long journey from Asia to Europe, where it's been sailing the Mediterranean this season, customized for Mandarin-speakers. Northern Europe cruises begin in April.
Talactac joined the ship at Tenerife in the Canary Islands and sailed to Tarragona.
"She looked great. The guests were happy. It was pretty difficult to get space on that ship. She sailed full," Talactac said, describing a "wonderful experience" with guests looking happy when they returned from excursions.
"The food is phenomenal. It caters to the Chinese palate but there are also offerings from where the ship is sailing," she added.
Yidun's staff delivered "the Viking experience, the same warm hospitality," in Mandarin. The demographic is very similar to Viking's English-speaking clientele though Mandarin-speaking guests favor multigenerational travel so often youngish couples take their parents or in-laws.
Talactac sampled a Mandarin-speaking river cruise in 2025, and the demographics were similar. Guests "really wanted to get out there, get off the ship to explore," she said. In many cases, they went independently, excited to just walk around town.
Excursions mirror the English-speaking selection, with an English-speaking guide accompanied by a member of the ship's staff translating into Mandarin or sometimes Mandarin-speaking European guides.
Yidun demonstrates Viking's belief in the Chinese market, which it expects to be as big as the English-speaking market at some point.
For now, there is the one Mandarin-speaking ocean ship, while river capacity will grow from four vessels this year to six in 2027.
Since it's only the signage onboard that's changed, the ships are "interchangeable. We can scale up and sideways and down, according to — as Tor says — however the ketchup comes out of the bottle," Talactac said with a laugh.
Talactac spoke to Seatrade Cruise News on the occasion of Viking Mars' turnaround at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal last week. She and Viking CFO Linh Banh, VP Investor Relations Carola Mengolini, EVP Marketing Richard Marnell and other executives hosted investors one day.
The other day was an opportunity for face time with big consumer and financial media. Editors and reporters from Bloomberg, CNBC, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit and other top outlets were among them, some meeting Talactac for the first time and also paying their first visit to a Viking ship.
