Viking Line served nearly 1.8 million passengers during the June–August summer season just ended.

“Summer is the peak season for cruises, and we prepare meticulously for this. This summer, we further increased capacity on the Tallinn route. The offering on the Helsinki–Stockholm route was also bigger than last year, with VIKING CINDERELLA reassigned permanently to this route during the spring. There is demand for increased capacity, and despite fully booked vessels it is gratifying to know that we received very high marks for customer satisfaction this summer. All in all, the 2024 cruise summer was very successful for us,” says Viking Line’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Johanna Boijer-Svahnström.

The number of passengers increased most – more than 11 per cent – on the Tallinn route, which is served by VIKING CINDERELLA and GABRIELLA alongside VIKING XPRS. The route had a total of 732,000 passengers during the June–August period.

“The growing popularity of voyages to Estonia seems to be a sustained trend but travel here has changed. Our neighbour to the south has also become a favourite destination for families with children, and people also travel with growing frequency via Tallinn to other parts of Estonia, the other Baltic countries and elsewhere in Europe,” notes Johanna Boijer-Svahnström.

“Prices in Estonia are still reasonable, but reasonable prices are no longer the biggest reason why Finns choose Estonia as a holiday destination. Estonia has quite simply become a fantastic travel destination, with many interesting museums, natural attractions and events. The restaurants on offer are also attractive and varied, outside Tallinn as well.”

Cheap Swedish krona is drawing visitors to Stockholm

In July, it was 50 years since Viking Line launched passenger service between Helsinki and Stockholm. The route, which connects the two Nordic capitals, has always been important, and during this anniversary year a total of 274,000 passengers sailed with GABRIELLA and VIKING CINDERELLA on the Helsinki–Stockholm route. Viking Line’s market share on the route climbed to 44 per cent.

“We invested nine million euros this past spring to update VIKING CINDERELLA and return the vessel to sailing under the Finnish flag. Our legendary vessel has sparked enormous interest, and the cheap Swedish krona also continued to affect Sweden’s attractiveness as a destination.”

Along with service to Stockholm and Tallinn, VIKING CINDERELLA and GABRIELLA made a total of seven special cruises to Visby this summer. Gotland’s romantic county capital is very popular in Finland, and these special departures sold out during the spring. In October and November, Viking Line will arrange two more special cruises to Visby.

On the route between Turku, Mariehamn and Stockholm, the climate-smart vessels on the Baltic Sea –VIKING GLORY and VIKING GRACE – served 747,000 passengers during the period June–August. Viking Line’s market share on the route is nearly 70 per cent.

“Despite tougher competition on the west coast routes, our passenger volume was nearly the same as last summer. Åland got a lot of attention this past winter when the film Stormskärs Maja premiered. I can note, for instance, that the tours we arrange in the footsteps of Stormskärs Maja were a big hit. We also had many golf passengers this summer – which is not surprising since the Åland-based Slottsbanan course was named Finland’s best golf course last spring. Åland is also an excellent destination later in the autumn, for example, for nature tourists and people who fish.”

The number of foreign tourists has increased steadily on Viking Line’s vessels since the COVID pandemic. In the past three summer months, the number of Chinese tourists was as much as three times higher than the figure last year. The number of German and Polish passengers also increased significantly, as did the number of South Koreans and Americans.

“People from southern and central Europe want to escape the extreme heat during their summer holiday months, and we also see signs of this phenomenon. We believe that climate tourism to the north will only get stronger, which means increased interest in Finland, the other Nordics and the Baltic countries.”

The season for international tourists coincides with Europeans’ summer holidays in August, when most Finns have already returned to their everyday lives. Schools this year started earlier than usual – in many places as early as August 8.

“The summer season ends abruptly when people go back to work. From the tourism industry’s perspective, it would be very desirable to have the school summer holidays end later in August,” says Johanna Boijer-Svahnström.

© Shippax