Tauranga's time to become national cruise centre

Alan Trotter, chief executive of Conventions Incentives New Zealand, has put out a call for Tauranga to become the national cruise centre - more than 80 cruise ships will be arriving next season.
Speaking at Tourism Bay of Plenty's Conference Bureau function, Mr Trotter said Tauranga could become a cruise hub and likened it building Te Papa museum in Wellington. "Te Papa transformed Wellington and tourism can transform this region," he said.
High yielding visitors can provide economic results, and he believed the Australian market was ripe for exploitation. "Tauranga is a go ahead community and Australia should really be seen as semi-domestic and not international," Mr Trotter said.
Auckland attracted the largest share of the convention market with 70,000 delegates a year, and a 30 per cent increase from Australia.
"This is the real success story - the convention sector is virtually recession proof. The venue choice for corporate meeting of 15-20 people is often personal recommendation such as a hotel, while association's rotated their conferences around the country."
Mr Trotter suggested the Western Bay bureau should actively track associations, especially if national headquarters were located here.