Samantha Motion: We're open to Aussies on planes, why not cruise ships?

Cruise liner Ovation of the Seas is farewelled from Tauranga in 2017. Photo / Andrew Warner

Opinion

The first time I learned Mount Maunganui people have a tradition of lining the beach at Pilot Bay to wave goodbye to cruise ships I was dumbfounded.

Wellington had cruise ships but in my two years there prior to moving to the Bay, I never heard a jot of interest from the general populace in the comings and going of the cruise crowds - let alone joyous public expressions of gratitude.

After a few months, I succumbed to curiosity and hiked up Mauao to watch the spectacle of the ginormous Ovation of the Seas squeezing through the Tauranga Harbour entrance.

Suddenly, I got it.

That ship, 348m in length and the biggest to visit the Port of Tauranga, can host about 6400 passengers and crew - about the population of Dannevirke. A Viking village hauling into the harbour.

In 2013, when the port got consent to dredge the harbour to be able to accept this new class of cruise liners, the biggest to have visited was the 317m Celebrity Solstice, with a combined capacity of 4100.

In 2015, the Bay welcomed 147,518 cruise visitors. By 2019, that figure was up more than 50 per cent. And each ship comes carrying a shipload of, essentially, cash.

Even in the Covid-curtailed 2020 cruise season, Tauranga still welcomed more than 180,000 visitors - who spent in the order of $74 million in the Bay of Plenty.

Economies around the region and beyond have benefited from the investment in growing this market.

Most visitors hopped straight off these giant ships and into buses, shuttles and helicopters bound for the volcanic and cultural wonders of Rotorua and Whakatāne, or the movie-set masterpiece of Hobbiton in Matamata. Tauranga wines and dines the rest.

In the year to June 2020, half of cruise ship visitors to New Zealand were Australian.

And yet, while we have opened our borders to Aussies who arrive on planes, those who would rather cruise over are not welcome.

The industry understandably feels unfairly targeted, and that feeling extends into the many small Bay of Plenty businesses - tourism, retail, hospitality - missing this huge market.

The cruise industry insists it is ready to resume transtasman cruises and that it can do so safely, but the Government appears to have no sense of urgency in putting a plan in place.

Official comments say the Government is aware of the "extremely high risks presented by cruise travel during the early stages of the pandemic last year" and there is no timeframe for their return.

It's time for the Government to get on board and prepare to join our community in waving the welcome flag for our cashed-up Australian cruise customers, before another summer season - and its millions of dollars - sails by.