Neale Jackson, a liquidator of Auckland-headquartered Island Escape Cruises (NZ), said today that about 80 customers in New Zealand had jointly lost that amount.
They either paid a deposit or full amounts for the travel, which never took place, he said.
The Herald reported yesterday on the situation, but it was not known then how many passengers were affected.
The travellers booked with the failed luxury cruise line business, which once specialised in journeys around Fiordland and Western Australia.
Australians lost $4.6m, bringing the total to $6.1m, Jackson’s reports show.
Kelly Robinson wrote a Google review saying: “Do not book this boat. They have gone into receivership. This cruise was a Fawlty Towers from start to end. You could not eat the food. The ship itself is lovely.”
Asked to comment on the failure, a spokeswoman for Tourism NZ said it did not regulate operators and referred questions to Consumer NZ about how travellers could protect themselves from losing money.
The cruise operator was not promoted on Tourism NZ’s website or Qualmarked, she noted.
Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy. Photo / Supplied
Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy said: “It’s one of those classic ones where companies go into liquidation and the customers are at the end of the line as unsecured creditors.”
Some travel insurance policies might cover the losses but it depended on terms and conditions. Refunding credit card payments through bank chargeback processes could be another option but less likely, he said.
Kevin O’Sullivan, NZ Cruise Association chief executive, said cruise ship operator financial failures were extremely rare. He had received an inquiry from a customer of the business from Australia. That worried a passenger asking him for advice and whether the cruise booked would go ahead.
O’Sullivan said he had no particular insight to offer. All he could tell them was to go back to their travel agent and insurer to ask what could be done.
Cruise ship operators were usually American or European-headquartered, so it was unusual for an operator from here to be failing, he said.
The first O’Sullivan knew about the failure was the Herald’s article, he said.
The liquidators’ report from Calibre Partners indicated Kiwis had paid for trips to sail around Fiordland with the locally based business, as well as part of the coastline around Western Australia.
But the Bank of New Zealand had the company put into receivership last August, Calibre’s report said.
The Kiwi company was based in Symonds St, Auckland.
A six-monthly update on the perilous state of the company’s finances, out this week, showed how many people missed out on cruises they had hoped for and paid for, drawing a string of extremely grim Google reviews of the business.
The company was incorporated in October 2018, just over a year before the pandemic broke out and people stopped travelling.
“Attempts to recapitalise the business were unsuccessful and Island Escape Cruises began cancelling cruises from July 2022,” the receivers’ report said. “The company’s key personnel – four employees and a contractor – resigned around July 2022.
“At that time the ship manager ... served the company with a statutory demand for US$471,452. The vessel was located in Broome, Western Australia.
“On August 19, 2022, the vessel was arrested by an admiralty marshal appointed by the Federal Court of Australia.”
The company’s balance sheet records $949,027 owed to trade creditors.
The receivers forwarded Australian customer information to the liquidators of the subsidiary across the Tasman.
Inland Revenue is also claiming money from the business in this country. Receivers said in their first report that $41,000 was due.
Last September, The Australian reported how passengers who paid tens of thousands of dollars for a luxury cruise around Western Australia’s Kimberley region appeared likely to be left out of pocket after the cruise operator collapsed.
