Lacklustre Wellington cruise season underway, greeted by protesters

Monday, 14 October 2024

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Wellington’s cruise season is officially under way ‒ but with just 76 ships scheduled for the capital, it appears fears of a diminished summer were founded.

Last season was a record-breaker with 106 cruise ships stopping in from November 8 and April 15. Forty fewer are coming in 2024/25, after the arrival of the Diamond Princess on Sunday.

Over winter, industry insiders were warning of a variety of bad omens, with global and local factors combining to take an expected $150 million chunk out of New Zealand’s half-billion-dollar annual cruise industry.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter wrote to Aotearoa’s 13 port cities in late-November saying increased port fees in Auckland, as well as government levies and petrol prices, were to blame for the nation’s cruise numbers expected to drop from 1056 last season to about 600 this season.

He told The Post the drop in numbers would have a “significant effect” on retail, transport and tourism.

Advance bookings showed a significant drop in cruise ship visits in future years, with 10 to 15 fewer each year for the coming two to three years, he said.

For Wellington businesses, struggling since Covid and now facing a cost of living crisis and public service cuts while large tracts of the city sits behind road cones, the timing couldn’t be worse.

But one group saw the plus side. Climate Liberation Aotearoa was greeting passengers from the Diamond Princess as they arrived in the city and telling them of the environmental impact from cruise ships.

“Our quarrel isn't with the passengers, but we do want to encourage them to think about the harm the industry is doing and the role they can play in mitigating it,” spokesperson Frank Preddey said.

“There’s a lot of green-wash in this industry and passengers are sometimes shocked when they learn how damaging their holiday actually is.”

Preddey understood the financial benefit from cruise ships was overstated as passengers spent most of their money on the ship and spent an average of about $26 per person in the city.

One Diamond Princess passenger, who would only identify herself as Carol from South Australia, was unimpressed.

“I think they are wasting their time … nobody is listening to them,” she said.

Cruise association chief executive Jacqui Lloyd confirmed early signs suggested cruise numbers, in Wellington and nationally, were predicted to drop further in coming years with geopolitical factors and cost to blame.

Cruise ships brought a lot more than $26 per passenger to the city, with figures from the 2019-20 season showing 190,754 passengers spent more than $53m in the capital.

Port of Auckland chief executive Roger Gray previously rejected Ponter’s claims and said the cruise industry had known costs were going up for years.

“I’m not sure where Mr Ponter got his information from,” Gray said. “The cruise industry is really important for the economy, it’s really important for the city and its vibrancy – and it’s important for the port as well, we make money out of the cruises.”

Other factors, including government changes, were behind the drop in numbers, he said.

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