Five of the 118 or so scheduled cruise ships to visit the Port of Tauranga this season will be staying overnight.
In anticipation for the visits, Mount Mainstreet and Tourism Bay of Plenty are planning on a reception for the visitors.
Five cruise ships are set to spend the night at the Port of Tauranga this cruise ship season. File photo.
Three of the overnighters are reasonable sized ships with 4000-5000 passengers, says Mount Mainstreet manager Ingrid Fleming.
'It's a great opportunity to leave lasting memories and do something very positive here.”
But due to Mainstreet's limited budget, possible events will have to be discussed with Tourism Bay of Plenty.
While Mainstreet members are prepared to stay open, they will want to know if there are going to be customers.
'It's important there's not much happening on the boat that night otherwise the passengers will go back to the boat.”
To make shore based entertainment worthwhile they will need support from the ship, the Port of Tauranga to keep the gates open, and tourism Bay of Plenty, says Ingrid.
The following cruise ships will be staying overnight in Tauranga during this upcoming 2016/17 cruise season –
Celebrity Solstice (2850 passengers) November 21.
Celebrity Solstice, December 10.
Europa 2 (500 passengers) January 17.
Celebrity Solstice. January 22.
Artania (1100 passengers) February 19.
The Bremen with 155 passengers is scheduled to arrive just after midnight on March 14, and depart at 6pm the same day.
11 comments
Organisation
Posted on 17-08-2016 14:20 | By FunandGames
So in reply to councils question have you prepared anything for these five stop overs? After many fine words the answer is NO
CCO SHUFFLE
Posted on 17-08-2016 16:19 | By AndyCap
Ingrid and Mount Mainstreet do a great job. Other than having some kind of street closures with pavement markets and street festivals on the cruise ship nights, there is not too much else Mount Mainstreet can do. How about some leadership from the all-powerful Tourism Bay of Plenty? With so much funding and resources why are they not in the forefront with a host of planned activities for the stay over passengers. This is their job, not that of Mount Mainstreet. There are so many possibilities to use this to our advantage yet little if anything has been done. As usual its too little, too late as plans would need to be co-ordinated with the cruise lines, local businesses and promoted to the passengers. Just more of the CCO tourism power play that defines Taurangas tourism offerings.
@ FunandGames
Posted on 17-08-2016 16:19 | By Captain Sensible
It is not the duty of ratepayers to welcome cruise ships. Let the businesses that profit from tourism do the funding.
Incompetent?
Posted on 17-08-2016 16:58 | By peecee09
What a useless bunch Tourism BOP are. There is no excuse. You should have been right on to this opportunity and prepared and publicise a promotional programme to the shipping companies and the local councils and communities. If it all turns into a non event we will all know who to blame. Do your job.
@peecee09 and AndyCap
Posted on 17-08-2016 17:09 | By BullShtAlert
Just wondering what exactly it is you expect TBOP to do? I would have thought that restaurants and pubs would be open and some of the shops, but what else do you want? As it is restaurants, pubs, bars and shops who get the money from tourists, it's up to them whether they go for gold, not TBOP. By the way I think TBOP should only be funded directly from business members and not rates.
This is TBOP's primary function!
Posted on 17-08-2016 17:12 | By Babs
As a local tourism business I would be very happy to contribute both time and money to establish some kind of signature celebration for overnight cruise stays. I do however also have a business to run, and the reality is that everything to do with the cruise ship market is controlled and regulated by the click of TBOP, Tauranga City Council and Port of Tauranga for their own interests. Other than their preferred partners, so many keep saying the same thing year after year. TBOP needs to get out and put their funding to purposeful use.
5 Simple questions for the TBOP
Posted on 17-08-2016 18:14 | By Angela (Mt Maunganui)
1. For how long has TBOP or Port of Tauranga known about the overnight cruise ship stays? 2. When did TBOP first contact and discuss a plan of action with other Tauranga organisations (such as Mount Mainstreet) and other local tourism businesses in regard to these overnight cruise ship stays. 3. What were the ideas and proposals put forward at these discussions. 4. What was the final chosen plan of action and how is this being conveyed to the cruise ship passengers before their arrival in Tauranga? 5. Do you think that it is important that Tauranga needs to promote itself as a desirable and memorable tourist destination, or is it ok that we continue to simply be know as the bus stop to Rotorua by visiting cruise ship passengers?
Perhaps it's quite sad...
Posted on 17-08-2016 23:08 | By groutby
to think that we even need to know what to do with these visitors after so many visits from ships..think of the tourists for once...they DO NOT want the shops to close at 4.30/5 PM, they DO NOT want to be told they cannot get a quality (please, not "fast food") meal after 8 or anything like that. They WILL want a vibrant, bustling and well lit (c'mon guys, flashing LED's and a bit of (even live!) music around the streets via maybe a walking ensemble to keep them entertained. Seriously, do something a bit different for a change...you will even get locals down there also to add to the number of people spending $$. We should not continue to be a place where tourists "pass through" if they need to, we live in the best region in New Zealand and yet do not positively promote it.JUST BLOODY DO IT!!.
@ BullShtAlert
Posted on 18-08-2016 08:43 | By AndyCap
-a kiwi inspired popup food or music festival, colourful tabletop street market, roaming musicians, a signature themed beach party of sorts, a top of Mauao experience or engaging sunset story tours around Mauao, a Maori cultural show with fire and lights at Pilot Bay, Mount Drury, Coronation Park, a hop on hop off kiwi cart style transport option around the Mount and between downtown Tauranga, a craft beer outing or wine tasting evening, a , or combine the lot This is almost ten planeloads of visitors being delivered to our doorstep on a single day. Tauranga needs to have a heart, stand tall and market itself as a fun, welcoming destination. Agreed that TBOP should not be rates funded. Rather, government should provide a limited tourism-marketing budget for each region, and then private enterprise dotherest. However, the enduring TCC/TBOP/POT circle of control will not permit this in any way
Ok tourism businesses?
Posted on 18-08-2016 09:15 | By BullShtAlert
Organise your own marketing and events and tell council you don't want TBOP funded from rates. Why should tourism get rates funding when other businesses rely on their own efforts? I'd love it if Council helped promote my business using other peoples money, but it wouldn't be right.
It's a closed circuit mate!
Posted on 18-08-2016 11:02 | By Tamati TK
Many residents and business owners agree with you that TBOP should not be funded by rates, and many have been calling on council to address this issue for years. But still council gives more and more money to TBOP regardless. This IS just the problem, and this IS the reason that many of those who comment, expect TBOP to be proactive in using some of this money on worthwhile tangible promotion initiatives. Have you ever seen or heard of TBOP sponsoring anything or supporting local communities, or upliftment, or training, or education? Remember when Te Puke and Katikati approached council and tried to get out from under TBOPs control and do their own marketing thing council said NO. They are holding the golden tourism goose very tightly around the neck.
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