Viking River Cruises Adds Extra Sailing

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Viking River Cruises announced today that an additional ship, Viking Danube, has been deployed on the popular Amsterdam-to-Budapest Grand European Tour itinerary for 2009. This brings the total 2009 departure dates for this itinerary to 41 sailings.

The Grand European Tour is a 15-day journey through five countries from Amsterdam to Budapest. Twenty-one sailings have already sold out, according to Torstein Hagen, chairman and CEO of Viking River Cruises. “We saw strong success with our Ocean Cruisers Savings offer, which gives an additional $500 off to passengers who had previously taken an ocean cruise,” Hagen said in a press release. “We have been able to both increase sales and preserve strong travel agent commissions averaging $1,040 per booking.”

Viking saw January sales from travel agents running 28 percent above those of last year, with the European spring sailing season already at 96 percent occupancy.