New Auckland cruise terminal expected to bring 100,000 new cruise guests a year to New Zealand

• Auckland’s dedicated international cruise terminal will open in 2027.
• The new cruise terminal is tipped to bring in an extra 100,000 guests per year.
• This marks another step forward for New Zealand’s dedicated new cruise strategy.

A new cruise terminal being built in Auckland marks another major step forward for the New Zealand cruise industry, as it continues to execute the national strategy designed by the government and local cruise industry.

The new development is part of a $200 million “big ships” development project, with the new international cruise terminal set to open from March 2027.

Port of Auckland chief executive Roger Gray has ambitious goals for the terminal, hoping to see an extra 100,000 cruise passengers.

He told the New Zealand Herald: “Now we’re looking to see real growth in those big 4500 ships, so I would think we have a real potential to bring in 100,000 more passengers as we continue to invest and re-attract people.

“It will allow us to discharge or load a big cruise ship within three hours.”

Gray highlights a particular focus on larger ships of 4500 and more passengers, which he says do already visit, but have “a terrible customer experience”. 

The only ship of that size which currently sails in the region is Anthem of the Seas, which has just four New Zealand stops planned for the 2027/28 season due to a renewed focus on Royal Caribbean’s new beach club Lelepa in Vanuatu.

Gray also notes that the Auckland cruise terminal comes as a result of discussions with cruise lines, which reportedly don’t enjoy the risk of having to anchor in the harbour and tender passengers in due to the lack of a dedicated space for cruise.

“That’s a terrible customer experience,” he said. “But bring them alongside, be processed through a purpose-built facility and be allowed to walk into the CBD is really nice, what a good customer experience is.

“It will assist shipping lines in further scheduling Auckland and New Zealand (for calls) with the bigger ships and mean we can compete against other ports with amazing cruise terminals at the base of their cities.

“We want to be one of those sort of ports, a global city where people have a global experience. Right now it’d be fair to say we haven’t been delivering a global competitive experience.”

With more than 300,000 passengers a year currently coming through Auckland, Gray says the city needs to put on a show for them.

“A figure not well-known is Auckland has in excess of 300,000 cruise passengers a year – that’s 300,000 Americans, Europeans, Asians – we’ve seen growth in Japanese visitors – and Australians. They want an amazing experience. They want a seamless transfer on and off.

“That’s what global cities do. And that’s why we see this as being an absolutely fundamental investment to further the growth of Auckland on its journey to being a global city.”

New Zealand’s cruise recovery continues

Over the course of only two years, New Zealand saw a massive decline of about 40 per cent in cruise calls, but the local industry and government did not take these numbers lying down.

The New Zealand Cruise Association closely collaborated with the federal government to put together a national cruise strategy and the results so far have been extremely impressive.

Apart from word on New Zealand sending large delegations out to cruise conferences and maintaining close relationships with cruise lines, the implementation of the strategy quickly lead to Carnival Cruises canceling a range of Sydney cruises on Carnival Adventure and redeploying the ship to New Zealand for a series of cruises out of Auckland in 2027.

Next we saw a definitive decision that cruising to Milford Sound would not be banned, a worry that had been hanging over the New Zealand cruise industry for years and placing uncertainty on future cruise schedules for cruise lines.

The next big news arrived with New Zealand’s solution to its biofouling problem of recent years, during which You asked – now cruise ships respond with new optionsships were struggling to meet strict hull cleaning standards and sometimes being turned away from entering New Zealand’s national parks. Just months after the development of the cruise strategy, it was announced that Auckland will install special hull cleaning facilities so they can easily assist ships in hull cleanliness, easing their trip into New Zealand. 

Now, with the announcement of the new terminal, we can continue to see the efficiency of how New Zealand is going through its checklist of necessary actions to get its cruise industry thriving again.

Perhaps the biggest current threat to New Zealand’s cruise industry at the moment can be found right here in Australia. New Zealand’s market is likely not big enough to attract big ships on its own and the majority of ships that visit New Zealand come over from Australia. However, Australia’s cruise industry continues to falter, with no promising word on whether a national plan will be developed in the style that New Zealand has. 

While New Zealand can surely make important gains with all the steps its taking, real and sustained progress will require a regional effort with Australia, and currently, we’re the ones letting the team down.