Cruise season bonanza: Record summer in store

New Zealand is set for a record cruise season with more than 1000 port visits planned during summer.

A small armada of ships will from October start heading here from cruise hotspots around Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean, with 54 ships due in New Zealand waters during summer.

This season will see spectacular new arrivals; Disney and Virgin ships debut in New Zealand waters and it is hoped spending could exceed the $565 million spent by cruise passengers and crew in 2018-19.

Cruise lines have enjoyed a stunning rebound after the devastation of the pandemic and the coming bumper season follows a strong recovery here last season.

Although badly hit by bad weather during the awful summer in the north of Aotearoa, there were still 794 port calls by 42 ships.

New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Jacqui Lloyd said the recovery in tourism last summer had been bumpy but despite the bad weather and some ships being barred from Milford Sound for biosecurity reasons, cruise had largely picked up where it left off before the pandemic hit.

There were still some pinch points looming, especially shortages of coach drivers and some hospitality staff, but this summer looked even better.

Lloyd said cruise was one of the strongest performers for tourism in New Zealand – where overall international visitor arrivals are now running at about 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

“There was a feeling from a number of our vocal detractors perhaps that people wouldn’t cruise because of health concerns, but the work that the cruise lines and New Zealand health organisations and Customs and MPI [Ministry for Primary Industries] all helped the restart.”

Opponents say cruise passengers make a small economic contribution during port stops and the environmental and “overtourism” impact of big ships in particular have led to bans or looming bans in some European cities.

Lloyd said she had travelled around the country and the mood of businesses serving cruise ships was positive.

“They’re really looking forward to getting vibrancy back to their towns again and of course, the economic benefit that goes with that. From a cruise point of view, it [last summer] took us all by surprise because cruise came back really strongly.”

Auckland’s Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said it was timely to have a boomer cruise season. “The city centre needs a great summer with good visitor numbers. International visitors typically bring in about 20 per cent of our summer spending – we look forward to seeing what the biggest cruise season ever will bring.”

Total spending in the city centre (not just international) from October 2022 to March 2023 was $722m.

Hawkes Bay’s cruise season last summer was hit by Cyclone Gabrielle and its tourism agency has a different view of the cruise industry. It’s worth about $30m a season to the region and after the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, cruise ships injected hope into the recovery.

Hawke’s Bay Tourism chief executive Hamish Saxton said two cruise companies offered to drop off supplies in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone and the first port visit within four weeks of Gabrielle came as major roads into the area remained closed, shutting off much domestic tourism.

“It’s extraordinary how quickly that we were able to welcome cruise visitors back and those visitors provided a really positive injection of spending and vibrancy back into our cities,” he said.

In Christchurch, where Lyttelton’s new cruise terminal was used for the first time last summer, research found that when ships are in port, electronic card transactions spike. But so does pushback from some locals worried about their town being overrun during ship visits.

During the cruise season from October 2022 to March 2023, Lyttelton got a total of 73 cruise ship visits. This was an increase of 356 per cent or 57 cruises when compared with the pre-Covid period October-March 2019, when Lyttelton didn’t have the new berth that accommodates large cruise ships.

Visitor spending while cruise ships were in port exhibited a strong upward trend, showing a direct correlation between cruise visitation and visitor spend, the report by council agency ChristchurchNZ stated.

Overall electronic card transactions (ECT) visitor spend in Lyttelton during the October-March 2023 period was $3.1m, an increase of 81 per cent or $1.4m when compared with October-March 2019.

Earlier this year Loren Heaphy, ChristchurchNZ general manager of destination and attraction, said cruise is a “unique sector” within the visitor economy and the volume of visitors who arrive at a destination on a cruise ship can have positive and negative impacts for the community and the economy.

“We recognise this and are committed to working alongside the industry on the season ahead in a cohesive, considered and collaborative way.”

An Auckland academic, Timothy Welch, is worried about the environmental impact of cruise ships.

Citing British Government research from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy in 2019, he says the average cruise passenger produces more than twice the emissions per kilometre as a long-haul flight passenger.

Welch is a senior planning lecturer and co-director of the Future Cities Research Hub at the University of Auckland. He says no New Zealand ports are part of a push to cut emissions when ships are docked. Cruise ships must run their engines to continue heating pools and provide lights and air conditioning.

“All those emissions go directly into the cities where the ships are docked, which is incredibly harmful. Unfortunately, none of New Zealand’s ports have shore power capability and there are no plans to provide shore power for cruise ships.”

And he questions assumptions about the economic impact. In the 2018 to 2019 season, cruise passengers contributed close to 2 per cent of the total $17.5 billion that was spent by international tourists for the full year.

“I’d expect a similar trend for this cruise season as passengers spend most of their money onboard cruise ships or onshore at a few select locations as most passengers are whisked around to specific locations by chartered bus.”

But Hawke’s Bay Tourism boss Saxton has a different take on spending.

“I think it’s really easy to form a blanket view on a cruise. Every ship is different. Every passenger is different as to their tastes, as is every car, every bus, every aircraft that comes to our region.”

And he points out that the peak cruise season lasts just over three months, meaning tourist operators have the opportunity to make money from other sources for the rest of the year.

NZ Cruise Association figures show that of ships calling around the country this summer, half are smaller vessels with fewer than 1000 passengers. Smaller, ultra-luxury vessels operated by Silversea and Regent Seven Seas Cruises and a growing number of expedition ships bring in wealthier, higher-spending tourists.

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) managing director for Australasia Joel Katz said the 2023-24 season was likely to be one of New Zealand’s most vibrant.

“Australia and New Zealand have become one of the most vibrant cruise regions in the world, and this means more options than ever for cruise fans.”

While P&O’s Pacific Explorer has been operating winter cruises out of Auckland, the summer season starts with the arrival of big ships from other regions in mid-October.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.