How New Zealand changed course on cruising

• Cruise lines welcome a reality check that has led to cooperation and clarity.
• Volunteers armed with maps and helpful advice welcome cruisers in the ports and at shuttle bus stops.
• After two cruises around New Zealand this summer, Jane Archer discovers the country is very much open for cruise business.

No one can have missed the growing antipathy towards cruise ships around the world in recent years. Venice was one of the first to take a stand, banning all but the smallest vessels. Now Amsterdam is in the throes of moving cruise ships big and small out of the city.

They are but the tip of the anti-cruise iceberg. In France, Alaska, Greece, Spain and Croatia, governments are trying to reduce or ban ships altogether in response to local protests.

So it was so refreshing to walk down the art-deco-adorned Emerson Street in Napier in New Zealand recently and see big signs outside so many shops and cafés welcoming us cruisers with all sorts of discounts.

It was not the only place excited that our ship, Crown Princess, was delivering almost 3,000 people with dollars to spend straight to their door. “We love getting the cruise ships,” Andrew, our driver/guide in Tauranga told me.

In Wellington, Christchurch and Port Chalmers (Dunedin) numerous volunteers were on hand with maps and advice on the best places to visit.

What makes the welcome so much more remarkable is that until recently New Zealand made cruise lines feel distinctly unwelcome, imposing high port charges and such strict biosecurity regulations that ships were actually denied entry into some ports until their hulls were cleaned.

There was also talk that ships would be banned from scenic cruising in Milford Sound, putting the kibosh on what Azamara Cruises chief international sales officer David Siewers described as “always a highlight for our guests when visiting New Zealand”.

What New Zealand’s authorities failed to take into account when imposing these draconian measures was that cruise ships are moveable objects. If life becomes too hard, they simply go elsewhere.

Many have, hitting the livelihoods of attractions, guides, shops, restaurants and bus and taxi drivers, many of whom were only just recovering from the Covid shutdown.

This season looks especially grim, with cruise ship calls down more than 40%, according to the New Zealand Cruise Association. But maybe it was actually the wake-up call the government needed.

Operational costs remain high and biosecurity regulations are still rigorous, with in-depth inspections possible anytime that examine everything from a ship’s recycling processes to where produce on board has come from, but Charles Verwaal, who looks after hotel operations across Princess Cruises fleet, also reports a reality check.

“There is more clarity and cooperation from the authorities. The industrial ports we have to use are not ideal so there is room for improvement, but everyone is more welcoming, friendlier and helpful.”

Azamara’s Siewers agrees. “We’re genuinely encouraged by the New Zealand government’s increasingly progressive stance toward cruise tourism, and particularly pleased to see meaningful investments being made in terminal infrastructure and port development,” he said.

“This forward-thinking approach bodes well for the entire industry and demonstrates a welcome commitment to sustainable cruise growth.”

The reward for New Zealand, and all those who depend on tourism for their livelihoods, is a planned upturn in calls. Azamara has expanded its programme in 2027 and 2028, even adding a New Zealand intensive cruise round-trip from Auckland on Azamara Pursuit in January 2028.

Oceania Cruises, meanwhile, is deploying one of its newest ships Down Under in 2027/28. Oceania Vista replaces Riviera on two cruises in New Zealand, one sailing from Sydney to Auckland, the other retracing its steps back to Sydney.

Princess has two ships cruising in New Zealand this season and next, one from Brisbane, the other from Sydney, while a few of its other ships will visit as they transit Australasian waters. “We definitely have a greater desire to come,” confirms Verwaal.