Skysea Cruise Line, a joint venture (JV) set up by China’s leading online travel agency Ctrip.com and famous cruise company Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., has the plan to expand its fleet scale and double its market share every year in the future, reported a domestic news report, citing the remarks made by Fan Min, one of Ctrip.com’s founders as well as the JV’s chairman and CEO, on Dec.23.

The number of China's outbound tourists hit 90 million last year, and the figure is expected to exceed 400 million in the next five years, Fan said, noting that the penetration rate of the cruise ship market in the Asia Pacific region is below 0.05 percent, while there is about 3.2 percent in North America and about 2 percent in Europe.

China’s rising middle class is a driver of the cruise ship industry, Fan added.