Cruise passengers do their own thing

A larger proportion of "free and independent" cruise ship passengers are keeping Kiwi tour operators busy despite a slight decline in the number of ship stopovers.

Jacqui Lloyd, general manager of marketing for Tourism Auckland, said iSite information centres – run by local authorities such as city councils – were benefiting from an increase in the number of tourists booking onshore rather than on the cruise ship. While the cruise ship season was "just warming up", Ms Lloyd said ship numbers would be down this year compared with last summer's record-breaking run.

Cruise New Zealand chairman Craig Harris said there would be 68 port calls in Auckland, 51 in Wellington and 424 across New Zealand this season, down from about 520 port calls around New Zealand last year.

Ms Lloyd said at this early stage of the cruise ship season, which typically tracks the summer months, iSite sales were ahead of last year. She put the inverse relationship down to the changing attitude of travellers who are putting renewed emphasis on value when picking tours and activities.

Increasingly they will research their options in advance over the internet or visit local tourist centres in search of deals, she said.

"I'd say the passengers themselves have changed quite a bit from what we might recall from 10 years ago; they're certainly a far more independent traveller than they were.

"From our side there's a handful of iSites [around the country] that are meeting and greeting ships when they arrive, helping them out with information they want and directing them through to the iSite and then trying to line them up with tours that will fit into their schedule."

Mr Harris said the 20 per cent lift in onshore bookings was in addition to the 50 per cent who prebooked on the ships.The trend meant more tourist spending was captured onshore and that had obvious spin-offs for the ports' local economies.

Mark Gibson, owner and sometime driver of the Auckland Explorer Bus service – one of the most popular hop-on, hop-off tourist buses in the city – said travellers knew they were not getting the best deal from the cruise ship agents and they wanted to shop around.

"They know they can get better value by not booking on the ship and just turning up at the port.

"Our stop's right by the ferry so they all look up the internet or talk amongst themselves and decide to go with a hop-on, hop-off service."

Word of mouth was more important than ever, especially in advertising over the internet, he said.

Auckland iSite manager Elsbeth Bloem said smaller tour operators were also benefiting from greater co-ordination with iSites this year.

About 15 smaller tour buses travelling to different sites around Auckland now left at staggered times between 9am and 12pm on cruise ship days, she said.

In previous years they had all departed about the same time, effectively ruling out tourists who could not catch the bus on time.

The range of tour products includes expeditions to Auckland's west coast beaches, wine trails, Maori cultural activities and city tours. Prices ranged from $35 to $250.

The industry expected a record season next summer, Ms Lloyd said.