Mount Maunganui retailers are reporting a booming day of sales yesterday as a trio of cruise ships brought thousands of tourists to the town.

That, combined with last night's Pilot Bay barbecue event organised by Mount Mainstreet and Classic Hits, meant crowds of people spent money at local outlets including eateries and takeaways.

The three cruise ships docked at the Port of Tauranga. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Mount Mainstreet manager Leanne Brown says there was a noticeable increase in people in the suburb last night as thousands lined the Bay to watch the cruise ships leave.

'This year there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of money spent in the local economy. It's all good for the whole local economy.

'More than 50 per cent of people are either staying in the city or in The Mount and part of that is because there are a lot more repeat cruise ship passengers.”

Yesterday the Silver Whisper, Dawn Princess and Oosterdam all docked in the port of Tauranga bringing thousands of passengers and crew. She says those repeat passengers have already experienced the tourist elements of what the region has to offer and are happy to stay locally and enjoy the ambience.

'There would have been thousands of people around yesterday because of the passenger and crew numbers exceeded 6000.

'If you take 50 per cent, who would have gone out of town and the other 50 per cent who stayed here, that's 3000 people who would have been in The Mount area.”

Pauline Carter, manager of I Love Merino on Maunganui Road, says business was booming.

'We had a great day. It was really buzzing and there were plenty of people and plenty of sales. Everyone was very happy.

'Yesterday the majority of people coming in would have been off the cruise ships. We had a few locals still and we also have a lot of independent travellers as well.”

She says a lot of people loved the possum and merino products as they were heading back to colder climates.

The Dawn Princess sails out of Tauranga. Pilot Bay was a hive of activity on Tuesday evening as thousands turned out to enjoy the seaside. Photos: Mount Mainstreet.

Having three cruise ships at the Port probably didn't affect the amount of people coming into the shop, says Pauline.

'It all depends on the day. Sometimes we can have a really quiet day when there's a cruise ship and other days we can have a really busy day. A lot of them [tourists] tend to go to Rotorua as well.

'It wouldn't have tripled, but you definitely knew there were three cruise ships in.”

Mount Mainstreet teamed up with Classic Hits to host an after-work picnic which attracted thousands of locals to the beach.

'The crowd size was beyond expectations; there were literally thousands of people there,” says Leanne.

'What we really wanted to do was give people a reason to come over to the Mount and to create a great experience around the cruise ships.”

She says the picnic was about getting people together to showcase the environment and celebrate the three cruise ships.

'There were thousands of people but there was still room for more.”

Parking was a bit crazy but some of my friends parked on the Phoenix car park and walked down. It was probably a little bit frustrating, but we got through it.”

Leanne says the atmosphere was just awesome. It was relaxed, the weather was beautiful, it was just a perfect day.

'It just epitomised what Pilot Bay, Mount Maunganui and Tauranga City is really.

'It was such a success that we are looking at doing another one before the end of the cruise ship season.”