Viking delays river cruises on Mississippi despite Jindal claims

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Louisiana’s governor received a black eye in the international media last month, one which garnered few comments locally. Jindal boasted that he had brought the famed Viking Cruise Line to Louisiana and did not hesitate to point out his tourism/economic development success on the Presidential campaign trail in Iowa. However, campaign claims aside, it may be years before Viking comes to New Orleans.

There is little doubt that cruise companies wish to mount multi-night river cruises on the Miss­issippi. At $1,000 per couple, per day, it is profitable, if companies can afford to construct the ships. Six- and seven-night journeys from New Orleans to Memphis and beyond have returned in the last two years with the American Queen making the run, and the recent news that the American Eagle will also relocate to New Orleans. However, both of these boats were built almost two decades ago, when construction costs were lower. Since the dawn of the millennium, no U.S. riverine cruise ship has been constructed

A Viking cruise ship currently in service in Europe

Thanks to Federal Jones Act regulations that require ‘American Flagged’ vessels to be built in U.S. shipyards with all of the higher costs associated, there seemed to be a limit to how many river cruise ships Louisiana could lure onto the Mississippi. So when Governor Jindal announced that Viking Cruises would spend $90 million to build and station vessels in the Crescent City, the tourism industry rejoiced, despite questions of whether the construction costs could be recouped, as these ships would have to be U.S.-flagged to travel on domestic waterways.

Consequently, Viking will not arrive anytime soon, no matter how many press releases the Jindal Administration has sent out. As Torstein Hagen told Travel Pulse at the latest Viking ship christening in Amsterdam in late March, “In other news from Viking, Hagen said the line definitely wants to build ships for the Mississippi river cruise market, but the plans unveiled by Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal earlier this month were a bit premature. “We don’t have a building contract yet, and our ducks aren’t all in a row yet,” Hagen said. “We think we have a ‘great design’ for ships that will be ‘taller and wider’ than what Viking currently offers.”

“When will those vessels debut and where will they be built? Hagen would only say that they would be introduced before Mardi Gras, “It’s just a question of which year.” He also wouldn’t not commit to those ships being built in Louisiana, saying only that “they will constructed in the U.S., which is required by U.S. law.”

Jindal had claimed that the boats would be constructed in the state, likely at Bollinger/Edison Chouest Shipyards, and that they would be ready to launch in the next couple of years. Industry insiders tell The Louisiana Weekly that no river cruise ship has been constructed since the 1990s at those yards, though the American Queen and others have been refit, so the process may take longer than Jindal had suggested at his initial press conference.

Though, to a person, each expert complemented the Governor on his accurate statement that the market for river cruises is huge. “Viking just inaugurated sixteen boats in for the European market…where there are hundreds of river cruises. There is huge potential here in New Orleans. It is just that the startup costs are equally huge.”

To build the equivalent of the American Queen today would cost well over $50 million, and Viking has proposed boats even larger and more elaborate.

This article originally published in the April 13, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.