The Crown Princess cruise ship at Queen's Wharf in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Jessica Hopkins
Low passenger numbers have dampened excitement for this year's cruise season.
The arrival of cruiseliner Crown Princess on Monday heralded the start of what's projected to be New Zealand's weakest cruise season in years.
Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said, while Auckland retailers had counted down the days to the new cruise season, this year's roster was disappointing.
"The downside this year is that we're down about 20 percent on last year, which was down about 20 percent on the year before," she said. "We've seen a big slide in the number of cruises coming into the country and that's a concern.
"The cruise season's a vital cog in that tourist market."
The Cruise Association expected just 660 port calls this year, the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic and well below pre-COVID levels.
Next year was already looking grim, with Disney Cruises announcing it would pull out of New Zealand in 2026.
For Gavin Oliver, the managing director of zipline business EcoZip Adventures, that was a massive blow.
Last year, Oliver estimated cruise passengers made up 11 percent of his business, but he expected that to shrink.
"With the decrease in cruise passengers coming to New Zealand, we think this year it's probably going to be about six percent," he said. "That's going to be a fairly significant number of customers.
"You're talking hundreds and hundreds of people here. It's not a small number."
He said losing cruises would also damage the wider economy.
"You're taking visitors out of the economy that are spending money and it's not just the money they spend with businesses like mine, but it's the money we then, in turn, spend with other businesses," he explained.
Young said the government and tourism industry must work together to turn the situation around.
"It is important for us to put a line in the sand around the levels that we've got now and find a way to get them back up to a higher level," she said.
Minister for Tourism Louise Upston said that work was well underway.
"We've been working really closely with the cruise sector over the last six months," she said. "We've got a really good plan of things we've done and what we need to do in the future to ensure that we get more cruise passengers coming into New Zealand."
Karen Thompson-Smith, the head of tourism at Auckland's economic agency Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, said there were plenty of reasons to be positive about the future.
"There is definitely some green shoots and we have to remember New Zealand does rate very highly on the bucket list for a lot of people," she said.
"There are some real positive changes that are happening. What we hope there is that will then make the cruise lines go, 'OK, there's demand there, so we'll look to put those ships back into New Zealand waters'."
One of those "green shoots" was the announcement of a new biofouling solution by Ports of Auckland, making it easier for ships to meet New Zealand's biosecurity standards and reduce the risk of being turned away.
"It's going to help take one of those risk factors that the cruiselines have to consider, when they're looking to bring these ships into shore, so they've got some security that they can bring the ships in and have the biofouling addressed," Thompson-Smith said.
Numbers may not improve for some time and Thompson-Smith warned next year's season could be similarly slow.
"Look, next year... we may still be in the same situation as we are this year, but definitely for that 2027/28 season, I definitely think you'll start to see those numbers turning back the right way," she said.
With stormy seas ahead, Auckland businesses hoped for good news on the horizon.
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