But which businesses will get the tourist spend?

Ovation of the Seas, the largest cruise ship to hit Napier Port this season, arrives Monday, Labour Day.

Her arrival is significant after a two-and-half year hiatus due to Covid restrictions, and is welcomed by the local retail businesses and tourism operators. A further 89 cruise ships will visit Hawke’s Bay this season, which runs from October to April.

The Ovation can normally carry up to 4950 passengers and 1300 crew, but previous indications suggested she would be at approximately 70% capacity on arrival, according to Hawke’s Bay Tourism.

Napier Port chief executive Todd Dawson said the Ovation will receive a celebratory reception at the port with a pōwhiri by a group of students from local high schools, as well as Napier’s signature art deco display of vintage cars by the Vintage Car Club and accompanied by local band Napier City Stompers.

“We anticipate up to 150,000 cruise passengers to arrive in Napier between October and April, which will add a significant and timely financial boost to our regional economy,” he said. 

The Port itself earns roughly 3-5% of its yearly revenue from cruise ship bookings.

In 2018 this was $2.6 million, in 2019 it was $3.7m and by 2020, this had grown to $4.3m, but the number of ships was cut by 11 due to Covid and the season ended early.

The spend with local tourism operators, retail and hospitality businesses is estimated at about $30 million each season, according to the New Zealand Cruise Association, based on previous seasons.

But some hospitality businesses aren’t as excited as the rest. One local business commented off the record that it was well known that cruise ship tourists didn’t spend a lot in local cafes and restaurants – an artifact of the all-inclusive meals that come with a ticket on cruise ships.

Steve Manning who runs Lick This ice cream parlour says the cruise ship spend only makes a small difference to his business. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the shop is half way up Marine Parade and there is only so far some people will walk. Another factor is that many of the tourists get shuttled from the Port directly to the Aquarium, meaning he is by-passed completely.

Manning also thinks that the time of day the ships dock and leave makes a big difference. If they are docking at 6 am and leaving again by 2pm, and tourists have to be back on board at 1pm, they are unlikely to be sticking around in town to have lunch.

He said he was sceptical about the purported amounts of money cruise ships brought into the regional economy.

Dermot Haworth, chief executive of Abbey Winery, a family business in Bridge Pa, said they were lucky enough to be part of a pre-arranged tour organised through the cruise ship operators, and therefore throughout the season received large numbers of tourists who came in on big busses. There were only three wineries on that circuit that worked the whole season for the ships.

All the other wineries did minivan tours with about 15 people per van, booked through local tourism operators, he said.

There were about 3000 people per ship and only about 200 went on organised wine tours through the ship and then a lot more go on minivan tours organised by local businesses. The rest of the tourists wander around Napier and go to souvenir stores, he said.

For Abbey Winery, cruise ship season were an important revenue stream, he said. 

“It’s good for us. We classify ourselves as a tourist business, rather than a local business. We don’t see local customers Monday to Friday and we have got all that empty space and staff doing nothing, so we do need all that tourism to come back.”

Hamish Saxton, Chief Executive at Hawke’s Bay Tourism said that after a two and a half year absence of cruise ships, it wasn’t possible to predict the spending habits of visitors when they disembark. 

“What we can do however, is work with stakeholders to ensure we are open, operating and encouraging spending.”

Chief executive of the Restaurant Association, Marisa Bidois said the return of the cruise ships was very welcome for many of the businesses located in port towns.

 “Whilst some cruise operators offer all-inclusive dining, there are still many guests who enjoy food and beverage experiences whilst in port.

“These include everything from the great coffees New Zealand is famous for through to uniquely NZ foods such as whitebait fritters or simply enjoying a glass of wine in a waterfront establishment.

“Cruise ship customers are certainly spending money in port when they dock, and those businesses that have a great offer targeted at the cruise ship customers will be the ones most likely to feel the benefit from this,” she said.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.

Photo supplied: Ovation of the Seas.