The 2026/27 cruise season opened in Auckland on Saturday morning when the Crown Princess sailed into the Waitematā, and the operator used the occasion to make the first firm commitment to growth the New Zealand cruise sector has had in three years.
Princess Cruises announced it will double the number of port calls its ships make in New Zealand from the 2028/29 season, the NZ Herald reported. The company said its ships would call at nine ports, taking in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Lyttelton, Dunedin, Picton, Napier and Timaru, along with scenic cruising through Fiordland. Princess said the extra calls would generate more than $100 million in economic value and make it the country’s largest cruise operator.
Matthew Rutherford, the company’s vice-president for Asia Pacific, said Princess had been bringing international visitors to New Zealand for more than 50 years. “This will be an especially significant season as we prepare to welcome our one-millionth Princess guest to Aotearoa,” he said. “New Zealand continues to be one of our guests’ most sought-after destinations. Its extraordinary landscapes, culture and hospitality are why people return year after year.”
The timing of the announcement matters more than the number attached to it. Cruise lines lock in itineraries two to three years ahead, so a commitment made in August 2026 is a decision about ships that will not arrive until the summer after next. It also means the seasons in between are already set, and they are not good ones.
Cruise visitation to New Zealand is down 40 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, and a further decline is forecast for the season that has just opened, with modest improvement not expected until at least 2027/28. Customs figures show the national industry peaked at 1,102 port visits in 2023/24 before falling to 845 the following year, with the 2025/26 season projected at around 660. Auckland responded in August by launching a ten year cruise plan aimed at making the city a turnaround port rather than a stop on someone else’s itinerary.
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston, who welcomed passengers aboard the ship in Auckland, said close to 200,000 cruise passengers were expected to arrive in New Zealand this season. “After a challenging few years for the sector, there are encouraging signs of renewed confidence,” she said in a statement released on Saturday. “Cruise lines recognise the practical steps Government has taken to make it easier to visit New Zealand, and the stronger coordination between government and industry.”
Upston pointed to Auckland’s cruise strategy, the development of Bledisloe North Wharf and work on biofouling requirements as changes that give operators more certainty. She also said the return of winter cruising next year and signals from cruise lines about future deployments pointed to growing momentum.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, the council’s culture, events and destination agency, expects cruise to contribute more than $200 million to the Auckland economy this season. Its director of destination, Annie Dundas, told RNZ that passenger numbers remained below the levels seen in previous years, but that there was growth on the horizon.
The infrastructure Auckland is counting on is already under construction. Port of Auckland is building a $200 million berth and terminal programme at Bledisloe North, which broke ground in September 2025 as the first project approved under the government’s fast-track regime. The berth will take ships of about 350 metres, and the terminal, Te Waharoa, is due to open in early 2027 with capacity to process up to 1,500 people an hour. From October 2027 the port will also use Shed 10 on Queens Wharf through the cruise season as a dedicated border processing space.
What the sector is trying to protect is substantial. The New Zealand Cruise Association put cruise’s total economic output at $1.23 billion in 2024/25, supporting 8,253 jobs and $384.2 million in wages across 25 ports and destinations. Direct passenger spending reached $393.7 million, of which $108.4 million went to retail businesses, at an average of $313 a day ashore.
The ship that opened the season was finishing a long voyage of its own. The Crown Princess, which carries about 3,080 guests, left Auckland on 6 May and sailed 36,000 nautical miles over 114 days, visiting 44 destinations in 26 countries before returning to the Waitematā.
For the city’s accommodation sector the distinction between a day call and a turnaround sailing is the whole argument. Passengers who begin or end a voyage in Auckland book a room either side of the ship, eat in the city and shop before they fly out, which is why the ten year plan and the new terminal are aimed squarely at that trade rather than at raw ship numbers. Auckland hotels have been carrying the growth in international guest nights this year, and they will keep doing so for now. The volume a doubled Princess deployment would deliver is still two winters away.
This article was contributed by Auckland Hotels, a comprehensive guide to accommodation in Auckland, New Zealand.
Is doubling port calls in 2028 soon enough for Auckland, or does the cost of calling here need to change first? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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