New Zealand cruise impact research

The global cruise industry is substantial, with approximately 32 million people cruising by 2023. The global sector is recovering well with passenger numbers continuing to rise past pre-Covid levels and the growth outlook is positive.

The New Zealand cruise market is lagging the international recovery, and the outlook is not as positive. After a strong 2023/24 season, the New Zealand cruise market is showing signs of contracting with anticipated short-term port visits and passenger numbers down.

This study aims to build on existing knowledge of the New Zealand cruise sector to better understand its wider (net) value. The research applies various tools to look at the cruise sector’s wider values, including the economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions.

Key findings and features of the report include:

• The cruise sector is an important foreign exchange earner, attracting spending to New Zealand.
• The cruise sector generates a range of effects on the environment, which contribute to New Zealand’s carbon-equivalent emissions.
• While social and cultural impacts could not be quantified in monetary terms, congestion and additional pressure on local infrastructure from visitors create the most visible social and cultural impacts in New Zealand.  The research provides commentary and a sense of the scale of some of these pressures.
• The outlook for the sector, and therefore the different impacts, is uncertain. There are tensions between the economic, social and environmental effects, which the report explores using a scenario approach.
• Available data restricted the ability to measure and quantify all effects. 

You can read the full report in the PDF below.