Cruise is the fastest-growing of New Zealand's tourism sectors
and has a huge amount of potential for future growth. The number of
cruise passengers coming to New Zealand each year has increased by
513 per cent since the 1996/97 season.
To ensure New Zealand continues to attract a growing share of
the global cruise market, Tourism New Zealand is working with
industry partners to market New Zealand and its regions to cruise
line companies.
New Zealand's popularity as a cruise destination has skyrocketed
in the last few years, with numbers of cruise passengers increasing
over 513 per cent since the 1996/97 season. Total annual cruise
visitor numbers are now comparable with New Zealand's
fourth-largest inbound tourism market, China.
With cruise ships now stopping at ports around the country, it
is also a sector that has potential benefits for many regional
tourism hubs. At present, spend by cruise passengers is largely
focused around the key cruise regions such as Auckland, Tauranga,
Christchurch and Dunedin, but can also include further inland
regions such as Rotorua, Waitomo, Queenstown and Mount Cook.
Tourism New Zealand's role
Continued growth of the cruise market will rely on a cohesive
approach from the New Zealand tourism industry. Some of the
challenges the sector currently faces include the streamlining of
port of entry customs procedures, the quality of on shore
excursions and passenger transportation into city centres, and
managing welcoming cruise passengers into working ports without
cruise terminal facilities.
The key body that oversees the development of the cruise
industry in New Zealand is Cruise New Zealand - see www.cruisenewzealand.org.nz. Tourism New
Zealand works with this organisation as well as the regional
tourism organisations around the country to improve cruise customer
experiences and product quality, to assist in discussions around
infrastructure development and sector issues, and to support Cruise
New Zealand in reducing the obstacles for cruise lines visiting our
part of the world.
With the increasing importance and potential of the cruise
industry, Tourism New Zealand has also taken a larger role in
marketing New Zealand as a cruise destination internationally.
In order to increase the number of cruise ships coming to New
Zealand each year, cruise lines must be convinced of New Zealand's
value as a destination. This is where Tourism New Zealand's
knowledge of New Zealand's key tourism markets can be put to good
use.
Tourism New Zealand uses its expertise in the international
marketplace to develop promotional work that best suits our target
cruise markets. We market New Zealand to cruise line companies,
attend major cruise trade shows and develop relationships with
cruise line executives.
Cruising into the future
It is predicted that, worldwide, cruise will grow to more than
17 million passengers by 2010, up 54 per cent since 2002. New
Zealand ports are likely to get an increasing percentage of this
growth.
Traditionally, when most people think about cruise, they think
of Americans. They are indeed the world's largest source of cruise
passengers (10 million Americans a year go on cruises), and they
are one of New Zealand's largest source markets for this type of
tourism.
However, Australia as a source market is becoming increasingly
important for New Zealand. In 2009, Australia actually overtook
America as our largest source of cruise passengers, and it is
predicted to grow even more in future years. This is mainly due to
the increased presence of cruise company Carnival Australia in New
Zealand, which has taken over new ships and continues to actively
increase the number of calls their ships make in New Zealand
ports.
Other trends include the building of much bigger cruise ships,
which will bring greater numbers of visitors to New Zealand at any
one time and increase the pressure on our infrastructure catering
to cruise visitors. This will be exacerbated in 2014, when the
Panama Canal is to be expanded so that bigger ships can pass
through and potentially come down to the Southern Hemisphere. This
has prompted a renewed focus on work to upgrade New Zealand's
infrastructure, with Cruise New Zealand and regional tourism
organisations working together on this issue.
To accommodate these factors, Tourism New Zealand is placing
more focus on direct promotion to international cruise lines,
helping ensure they are better informed about everything New
Zealand has to offer as a cruise destination.