One of New Zealand's top advocates for the cruise industry has
been made a life member of the organisation he helped found.
Captain Craig Harris has been made a Life Member of Cruise New
Zealand (CNZ), the organisation that markets New Zealand as a
cruise destination to cruise lines.
"Craig has played a massive role in helping the cruise industry
to become an increasingly important contributor to tourism in this
country," says George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand Chief
Executive.
"He was an early advocate of the potential of cruise for New
Zealand, has been an outspoken spokesperson for the needs of the
industry and has developed many useful initiatives."
Craig Harris is Managing Director of ISS-McKay Ltd, the leading
independent New Zealand agent for cruise ship operators, handling
the majority of cruise ship port calls during the New Zealand
season.
He founded Cruise New Zealand (CNZ) in 1994 and has served as
its chairman ever since. CNZ has played an active role in
everything from the development of regional port facilities and the
training of local tour guides to creating meet-and-greet programmes
and raising community awareness of passenger expectations.
In 1995 Craig Harris led CNZ's first delegation to the annual
cruise shipping convention in Miami and has organised regular sales
missions to the United States. He helped set up the annual economic
impact study. The most recent of these shows that the cruise
industry generated NZD412m in direct spend during the 2007/08
season, compared to NZD77.4m in 1999/2000.
Craig Harris also championed the push to supplement Auckland's
existing cruise ship terminal at Princes Wharf with another at
Queen's Wharf - a project the New Zealand Government has now
undertaken.
Another milestone has been cruise company Carnival Australia's
decision to operate an extended four-month season in New Zealand
from April next year with Australia's resident ship, the Pacific
Sun.
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