First cruise ship season a boost after a 'dark three years' for Wellington tourism Erin Gourley05:00, Apr 10 2023 9 The Detail: All aboard? The cruise ship comeback Play Video RNZ Cruise ships will be returning to New Zealand shores this summer. (First published May 2022) It’s been a tumultuous time marred by Covid-19 and dirty hulls but Wellington’s first post-Covid cruise season ends on Tuesday with an ovation from those in the tourism game. The massive Ovation of the Seas docks on Tuesday at 8am, closing out a season which brought an estimated 150,000 visitors to the city on 90 ships. It hasn’t been smooth sailing – there were Covid outbreaks with passengers in isolation, biofouling problems where ships were too dirty to enter New Zealand waters and missed ports because of Cyclone Gabrielle. But for tourist attractions like the Wellington Cable Car the passengers brought a much-needed boost in business. Chief executive Tansy Tompkins, who is also the deputy chairperson of the New Zealand Cruise Association, said the season was “incredible, revenue-wise” after “three pretty dark years of going up and down with no one on”. More from Stuff: * Library branch damaged by large falling tree branch * All Black prop Tyrel Lomax in Hutt Valley Sports Awards contention * Woman dragged from bottle store found safe, police still looking for man Tourism businesses throughout the city had been unsure about how many cruise ships would return, so it was “amazing” to see thousands of tourists show up over summer, Tompkins said. The cruise ship passengers have turned around the Wellington Cable Car’s finances. It was forecasting a deficit before the cruise ship passengers arrived, requiring a grant from the city council, but was now forecasting a profit for the year. On a non-cruise-ship day the Cable Car gets 1500 passengers. When the cruise ships are in, it gets 6000, meaning the operators throw the normal 10-minute frequency out the window and make as many trips as they can each day.
