Recently, Chongqing Cruise Center released the 2020 big data for the "Two Rivers Tour" and "Yangtze River Cruises" respectively, attracting wide attention in the industry. Yangtze River cruises were once a high-quality tourism product on the "Golden Tourist Route" — the Three Gorges. Despite facing several setbacks, they entered a "Golden Age" in 2018. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic dealt another heavy blow to the Yangtze River cruise market. Even after resuming operations following a six-month suspension, the sector only recovered to about 40% of the previous year’s level. Will Yangtze River cruises achieve a faster recovery in 2021?

In 2019, high-quality in-depth travel became the key term for European tourism.Inland river cruises, with their ability to deeply explore attractions along the route, offered the most convenient way for travelers who enjoy in-depth discovery. In the past two years, as European inland river cruises have grown increasingly popular, market demand has risen sharply.

On May 8, 2018, Starriver Cruises set sail as scheduled on the beautiful Danube, once again attracting widespread attention from the industry.It is reported that guests attending the launching ceremony included representatives of well-known Chinese tourism wholesalers, dozens of tourism institution representatives from Eastern Europe, as well as representatives of Hungarian institutions in Budapest and local Chinese community leaders.

For many Chinese people, the classic film Princess Sissi, which aired for years on CCTV’s Movie Channel, offered them a glimpse of romantic Western royal culture. As the princess sailed down the Danube in the name of love, she was greeted by magnificent European churches, ancient classical architecture, modern art centers, and the vibrant life of Europe’s great cities along both banks.

With the advancement of the **Belt and Road Initiative** and the upcoming **2018 EU-China Year of Tourism**, the development of China’s outbound travel market to Europe is expected to achieve even greater growth. Moreover, given the strong performance of China’s outbound tourism to Europe in 2017, Europe has become the **third-largest destination region** for Chinese outbound tourists, after Southeast Asia and East Asia.