Cultivation Strategies of Professional English Ability of Cruise Service Program in Chinese Higher Vocational Schools

China's cruise industry has developed rapidly. The major international cruise companies have entered the Chinese market, and the number of cruise tourists has also increased. However, the speed of China's cruise talent training is lagging behind the speed of industry development, and the quality of talents does not meet the requirements of enterprises. This paper analyzes the professional ability of the work position in the service department on board, and proposes six countermeasures to improve the English ability of cruise service-oriented students in China's higher vocational colleges: implementing the ability-based teaching philosophy, clarifying the professional English teaching objectives, and carrying out the use of ESP classroom teaching method, designing teaching plans and contents based on industry standards, clarifying the evaluation standards of the students’ English language ability, and training the competent professional English teachers. For improving the English language ability of the students of the cruise service program, the paper concludes that the teachers need to establish a teaching philosophy based on competency, apply the ESP classroom teaching method, and to be trained with both English language teaching ability and cruise industry knowledge.