Cruise ships are coming back to New Zealand in their hundreds

Ovation of the Seas, the world's fourth largest cruise ship and the largest to visit New Zealand, is heading back this year. Photo / File

Hopes are high that New Zealand's economy is in line for a half a billion dollar boost in the next few months as hundreds of cruise ships return to this country.

Maritime borders closed due to Covid restrictions reopened on July 31 and, judging by the numbers of scheduled cruise ship calls at New Zealand ports from October, regions deprived of overseas visitor dollars for two years will be celebrating.

New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Kevin O'Sullivan said 900 port calls are expected nationally this cruise season, which runs from October to April.

This is getting near pre-pandemic numbers which generated close to $570 million for the year ended June 2019, according to Statistics NZ.

O'Sullivan said pre-Covid, cruise ship port calls had passed 1000 per season and were heading towards 1100.

Large cruise ships were 70-80 per cent booked this season, he said.

Incoming passengers would be mostly Australian at this stage, with US and Europeans also in the mix.

"Demand is very high. Bear in mind the rest of the world has been operating for some time now."

Auckland was expected to host nearly 100 visits this season and Otago more than 100. Fiordland had good numbers, O'Sullivan said.

Port of Tauranga said it had 100 bookings between the end of October and April.

This compared with a record season of 116 ship visits in the 2018-2019 season, a spokeswoman said. In the 2019-2020 season, cut short by the pandemic and maritime borders closure, the Tauranga port had 106 visits, with 16 cancelled by the closure.

Napier Port said it has more than 80 ship visits on its books, including 20 double days when two vessels are in port at the same time.

Ovation of the Seas, one of the world's largest cruise ships, would be the first to berth in October, a spokeswoman said.

Napier's new 6 Wharf had been designed as a multi-purpose wharf, capable of berthing container, bulk cargo and cruise vessels.

"Our marine team are still in the planning stages, including pilot marine simulator trials, for berthing cruise vessels on 6 Wharf and so it is too early to confirm the exact berth for the Ovation of the Seas."

The association's O'Sullivan said the description of cruise ships as Covid breeding grounds had "dogged" the sector but on-board vaccination and testing protocols were stringent compared to onshore these days. Vessels also had quarantine facilities.

"The world has changed. Passengers themselves seem pretty happy how things are being handled."

The association used to do economic modelling on cruise ship visits but stopped the practice because macro-economic and micro-economic findings were so unaligned.

Now it made assumptions on past trends as reported by Statistics NZ and by looking ahead using similar parameters.

Economic expectations for the coming season were not dissimilar to the 2017 cruise ship season. However it was still early days, he said.

"It's up there. There's a lot of water to go under the bridge yet ... but it's probably getting close to half a billion dollars."