One of surest signs of spring in Tauranga is set to sail into view next week, as the 2015/16 cruise ship season gets underway.
The Diamond Princess will arrive from Picton on Wednesday, October 7, heralding the start of the biggest cruise ship season yet.
Cruise ships will begin returning to Tauranga next week. Photo: File.
Some 84 ships are expected in the Port of Tauranga between next week and May 18, 2016, bringing 166,700 passengers with them.
This is a 15 per cent increase on the number of passengers that visited last season, and their expected spend is around $40.5 million – up 6.3 per cent on last season's figures.
Among the larger of the ships stopping by this year is the 317m-long Celebrity Solstice, which is expected on November 12.
The 311m-long Explorer of the Seas is expected on its first visit on December 7.
Her Royal Caribbean sister ship, the 264m-long Legend of the Seas, is due in port on January 30.
Tauranga is the second-most visited port in the country after Auckland, with 125 visits and ahead of Wellington's 77 visits.
5 comments
getting around
Posted on 30-09-2015 13:25 | By rosscoo
lets hope Regional council promote local bus service to help cover its losses so rate payer doesn't have to top up. getting more revenue using local service and is also cheaper than service that is provided for tourists off ship wanting to come into city.
expected spend $40.5m?
Posted on 30-09-2015 13:51 | By Plonker
That seems alarmingly high? I would suspect that other than the PoT berthage fees and Tourism BOP clipping the ticket on the way through, virtually all spending would be in Rotorua.
jmac
Posted on 30-09-2015 16:56 | By JohnMac
This can only be a plus for the BOP.I do know the visitors travel to Rotorua and also Matamata while many stay at the Mount or Tauranga. The region benefits.
We get these lovely visitors every year
Posted on 30-09-2015 18:30 | By How about this view!
And some of them jump onto a local bus to go shopping. They get On and off at the Willow Street bus terminus and are confronted by the welcoming committee. Vagrants, drug dealing out of CCTV areas, drinking alcohol EVERY day in the liquor ban area in front of the CCTV cameras, panhandling and stand-over tactics to get "Spare change" or used bus tickets, dividing up or on-selling shop-lifted goods and general loitering. I wonder if Council and the Police will EVER get around to dealing with the REGULAR offenders. Let's have a downtown that we can be proud to show our visitors instead of the toilet that it is being allowed to become.
Not All visitors Leave Town
Posted on 01-10-2015 07:17 | By Road Ranger
The visitors that do go to Rotorua use local bus operators and the ones that do stay in town (mainly Aussies) will use the urban bus service to get into the city or stay at the Mount - a win/win situation for all. Great stuff "cobber"!!
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to make a comment.