Facilities blamed for slowdown in cruising

New Zealanders are taking cruises in record numbers but the rate of growth has fallen, with an industry group blaming infrastructure constraints for not hitting targets.

Last year 98,000 Kiwis took an ocean cruise, up 8.7 per cent on the previous 12 months, but short of the 100,000 target for the year set by a cruise industry group.

“The slowdown in growth across the region due to the infrastructure capacity constraints resulted in this target being missed by just 2000 passengers,” the Cruise Lines International Association said.

The rate of growth in cruising is well short of the decadelong average increase of 14.7 per cent.

The association says there is a risk of ships skipping this region if infrastructure in Sydney, in particular, but also some other ports is not upgraded.

At Auckland the biggest ships have to moor in the harbour rather than dock because of delays extending Queen’s Wharf with a dolphin mooring structure.

Association managing director Joel Katz said this region risked losing business to Asia, where facilities were good.

A report released yesterday traces where New Zealanders have cruised around the world. The South Pacific remains the favourite place to cruise, followed by around New Zealand and Australia.

Katz said New Zealand continues to outperform many other more established cruise markets, in percentage terms well ahead of the United States, Europe, Britain and Ireland.

“With 109 new cruise ships set to be delivered between 2018 and 2027, New Zealand is well positioned to reap the rewards of increased local deployments, as long as infrastructure constraints can be addressed and the tax burden on cruisers and the industry does not become too onerous,” he said. “With many of these local cruises calling at the regional ports around the New Zealand coastline,” he said.

The association was closely watching the planned international visitor levy here, which he said needed to balance the needs to fund tourism facilities while ensuring that potential visitors were not being deterred. Latest figures show the equivalent of 2.2 per cent of New Zealand’s population took an ocean cruise last year. Small-ship luxury and expedition cruising is also becoming more popular. The figures don’t include those taking river cruises.