Before the outbreak of COVID-19，China’s cruise tourism market showed obvious signs of slowing down after more than a decade of rapid development. In addition to unstable geopolitical relations，single route products and insufficient cultivation of cruise culture，the failure to effectively respond to and meet the customer value of the cruise tourism market is also an important reason for this phenomenon. At present，there is very little research on the customer value of Chinese cruise tourists. Therefore，with the help of the means destination chain theory，the article uses the soft ladder interview method and hierarchical value map analysis，taking cruise tourists from Qingdao’s home port as the research object，to explore the formation process of Chinese cruise tourists’ customer value，and reveal the internal mechanism between cruise product attributes and consumers’ perception of consumption results and value realization，so as to help cruise operators accurately grasp consumers’ psychology and preferences，form effective marketing mix Provide theoretical basis for enhancing the vitality of China’s cruise tourism market.