“Challenging environment” and local decline forces New Zealands to cruise overseas

• Statistics from the Cruise Lines International Association highlight some of the problems of the struggling New Zealand cruise industry.
• Not only is there a decline in cruisers, but also more New Zealanders are cruising away from home.
• New Zealand will see a 40% drop in port calls over two years due to factors such as increased regulation, taxes and biofouling issues.

Data from Cruise Lines International Association Australasia shows that cruisers from New Zealand are opting for more fly-cruise holidays, rather than cruising locally. This is the first real evidence that New Zealanders are looking to cruise in other regions as a result of the decline in cruise capacity at home.

CLIA’s figures show a 7.1% decline in New Zealanders who took an ocean cruise in 2024 compared to 2023, with 80,200 jumping on a ship locally.

Despite this decline, an increased percentage of Kiwis cruised in long-haul destinations, with 34.5% of those who cruised doing so far away from home. This represents a massive jump from the 23.1% who cruised long-haul in 2023.

CLIA Managing Director in Australasia Joel Katz made it clear that this is due to the well-documented challenges that New Zealand cruise has been facing, which has left fewer options for local cruising.

“While global cruise figures are at record levels, New Zealand has been impacted by reduced local deployment due to regulatory challenges and rising costs faced by cruise lines locally.

“The New Zealand cruise market has also been affected by other local economic factors, just like other areas of tourism. But the data suggests Kiwi cruise fans will opt to sail elsewhere if their choices at home are reduced.”

Katz says that work needs to be done to get the cruise industry thriving in New Zealand again.

“New Zealand is an incredibly popular cruise destination, but it is also a challenging environment for cruise lines to operate in.

“We need government, destinations and industry stakeholders to work together to address the regulatory difficulties and high fees that cruise lines experience in the region, which ultimately deter ships from operating in New Zealand.”

While New Zealand has taken a recent positive position on cruise, with confirmation that cruising to the country’s crown jewel, Milford Sound won’t be banned, the industry looks set for a difficult couple of years.

Some cruise lines are visiting New Zealand up to 70% less as the region sees a massive 40% drop in port calls.

Contributing factors to this drop include ongoing biofouling concerns and various new taxes for cruise ships and passengers, which have led to industry uncertainty and reduced forward port bookings for New Zealand.

Cruising has been thriving across the globe and is an ever-increasingly popular way to vacation, meaning that cruise lines have plenty of other places to send ships. New Zealand always scores well on customer feedback and is a popular destination for cruisers, but cruise lines are unlikely to increase sailings to the country if they don’t feel there is stability within its regulations and taxes, or that it will be a profitable place to cruise to.

While the CLIA stats show an initial decline, this decline is expected to grow even steeper over the next few years unless action is taken.