10,000 jobs at risk as New Zealand reckons with a cruise crisis and says: “This is no drill”

• The New Zealand Cruise Association just held a conference called “This is not a drill”.
• The New Zealand cruise industry is seeing a steep decline in cruise visitors, of up to 40% over just two years.
• This will have grave consequences for the industry, putting at risk the 10,000 jobs that the New Zealand cruise industry created in the 2023/24 season.

New Zealand is in the process of reckoning with, and attempting to reverse, an undeniable crisis for the cruise industry.

The New Zealand Cruise Association (NZCA) just held their annual conference and even themed it, “This is not a drill”, attempting to emphasise not only the severity but the urgency of the situation.

Passenger numbers have dropped 20% since last year and are projected to fall another 20% by next season.

This season is expected to see 215,000 passengers, compared to 330,000 just one year before.

Jacquie Lloyd, chief executive of the NZCA said RNZ: “It is a little [like] crisis talks, but there is also a lot of positivity.

“[We’re talking about] how we all need to work together, and make sure that the messaging is going out around central and local government on how important cruise is for regional economies, particularly our tourism and hospitality operators.”

Lloyd noted that she was even told by cruise lines that the number of searches for New Zealand cruises is dropping.

“[It was] interesting talking to Princess Cruises today, who spoke at the conference, and talked about the fact that the searches for New Zealand and Australia for Princess are down quite considerably on what they have been previously

“We will need to do a lot of work, as a nation, to promote passengers to come back to our shores.”

This makes sense, given that more and more cruise passengers seem to be accepting that they won’t be able to make it out to New Zealand, as the number of available cruises continues to diminish.

It was also conceded by Lloyd that the job losses would be inevitable as the cruise numbers continued to drop.

“There will be [job losses], and that will predominantly be through hospitality and tourism providers, drivers for coaches, likely within ports for teams that usually will look after cruise vessels.

“There are 10,000 jobs created by [the cruise industry] in the 2023/24 season and we do have concerns that we’ll see a reduction for this season coming.”

Other issues discussed at the conference included continuing biofouling concerns, and the possibility of installing a port cleaning station at Auckland to help with this. 

Overall, the message was clear – New Zealand cruise is in trouble and if the situation is going to be resurrected, action is required right now.