Abstract: Although cruise ship was initiated in the early 19th century, the real cruising carrying tourists did not taken place until the mid-nineteenth century. From being the preferred mode of travel for the world’s social elite and affluent in its inception, cruise tourism has become nowadays a truly mass-market phenomenon. The study on the cruise tourism abroad began in the 1960s and has accumulated so far a very rich research results, the relevant theories and research methods are becoming gradually mature. In contrast, the cruise tourism industry in China is still in its infancy and the relevant studies have lagged far behind. In order to present a scientific reference for promoting the healthy development of the cruise tourism industry in China and urging Chinese scholars to participate in the related studies, the mainstream bibliographic databases were systematically queried, leading to a collection of 225 cruise tourism-related academic publications published between 1961 and 2012. Based on extensive synthesis of previous studies, this paper systematically summarized the achievements in theories, perspectives, methods and practices obtained by foreign scholars. Overall, international academic, especially in the developed western countries, has developed a completed research system, detailed research contents, advanced research methods and fruitful research achievements for cruise tourism. However, the analysis in terms of its contents and meta-data do reveal that the international cruise tourism research has still existed same limitations. Future research is proposed in this paper should concentrate on the following aspects such as the development of emerging markets, the authentic experience of cruise visitors, innovation of service models, local real impacts of cruise tourism, and security and safety of cruise tourism.

摘要： 世界上邮轮萌芽于19世纪初，而真正携带游客的邮轮旅游则主要开始于19世纪中叶。邮轮旅游从最初主要为社会精英和富人阶层参与的简单社会活动，发展至今日已成为一种大众化的市场现象。国外有关邮轮旅游的研究开始于20世纪60年代，迄今已积累有非常丰富的研究成果，有关理论和研究方法日臻成熟。相比之下，我国的邮轮旅游业则刚刚起步，有关研究远为滞后，亟需了解国外邮轮旅游发展的成功经验，以及借鉴国外学者的有关研究成果。在广泛综合前人相关研究的基础上，系统总结了国外邮轮旅游研究在理论、观点、方法、实践等方面取得的成就，并对目前研究存在的一些不足和未来研究应注意的问题进行展望，希望研究结论可以为促进中国邮轮旅游的健康发展，引导中国学者开展有关研究提供科学参考。