COVID-19 curtails cruise ship visits and spending
Last summer’s cruise ship season was cut short by COVID-19, with spending down 3.2 percent to $547 million in the year ended June 2020, Stats NZ said today.
The $18.1 million fall in annual cruise spending reflected a truncated number of cruise voyages, port calls, and passengers due to enforced border restrictions from March 2020.
“Overseas-flagged cruise ship visits were banned in March 2020 following the emergence of COVID-19 within New Zealand, and outbreaks onboard ships visiting last summer,” national accounts senior manager Paul Pascoe said.
The cruise season is highly seasonal with most visits between October and April each year, so the ban came towards the end of the season.
Last summer, visitor spending by cruise travellers in New Zealand fell to $356.4 million, down 3.5 percent ($13.1 million), following a 24.5 percent increase in 2019.
“Reduced visitor spending impacted many regions with shore excursion operators, transport services, visitor attractions, hospitality, and retail sectors all affected,” Mr Pascoe said.
Vessel spend associated with services (including fuel) provided to cruise ships visiting New Zealand totalled $138.7 million, down 2.2 percent ($3.2 million). This reflected both reduced fuel demand and the loss of activity associated with port calls for the remainder of the season following the border restrictions. GST from cruise expenditure contributed a further $52.0 million to total expenditure.
Auckland and Tauranga were the largest recipients of total cruise spending. In the year ended June 2020, spending in Auckland reached $207.6 million (up 9.5 percent), with Tauranga recording $74.3 million (down 16.8 percent). The tragic events of the Whakaari/White Island eruption in December 2019 resulting in 21 deaths were a contributing factor in reduced spending across the wider Bay of Plenty region. Dunedin spend fell $10.4 million (down 17.3 percent) to $49.8 million.
Truncated season – Dunedin largest recipient of passengers
At the time of COVID-19 enforced border restrictions, the New Zealand Cruise Association had recorded 169 ship voyages and 901 port calls, including an increasing number of overnight port calls. For the corresponding period of the 2019 season, 146 voyages and 823 port calls had been completed.
A further 41 voyages and 139 port calls were scheduled for the remainder of the 2020 season to June with an estimated 70,000 cruise ship passengers anticipated.
Nearly 283,000 cruise ship passengers visited New Zealand in the year ended June 2020, down 12 percent (39,000) from 2019.
“The decrease in international passengers was led by citizens from Australia (down 13,000) and the United States (down 5,000), while the United Kingdom recorded an increase of 1,700. The number of New Zealand citizens almost halved from 35,000 to 18,000,” population insights acting senior manager Tehseen Islam said.
Australian citizens’ overall share of unique cruise passengers increased to 51 percent in 2020, up from 49 percent in 2019 and 44 percent in 2018. United States citizens accounted for 21 percent while New Zealand and United Kingdom citizens were 7 percent each. Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom collectively made up almost 80 percent of passengers during the 2020 year.
Dunedin received the largest number of passengers, narrowly ahead of Wellington. In the June 2020 year, Dunedin recorded 191,100 passengers, down 20 percent (46,600), while Wellington had 190,800 down 14 percent (31,700). Auckland recorded the largest decrease in the number of passengers down 23 percent (55,800) to 183,200 with Tauranga down 19 percent (44,100) to 183,200.