Cruise Ship Tourism

Cruise tourism creates opportunities for Retail

Cruise tourism presents a huge opportunity for retailers. We have prepared this guide to help you better understand the needs of cruise passengers and to prepare for the influx of shoppers that cruise tourism brings.

What can retailers do to prepare for Cruise Ship passengers?

Find out when passengers are going to arrive and where they are going to be dropped off in your city or town. The New Zealand Cruise Ship Association has produced a useful schedule which allows you to see when and where ships are docking throughout New Zealand.
Familiarise yourself with popular tours that cruise passengers take and their timetables. Cruise passengers are not limited to port towns, for example day trips visit Hobbiton in Matamata from Tauranga.
Think about extending opening hours to accommodate passengers.
Put on extra staff to cover the influx of shoppers and remind staff that these customers might need extra help finding their way around town, and to public amenities/tourist attractions.
Be welcoming, use signage with the cruise ship’s name, or other personalised messages. You’ll find the ship names on the schedule above.
Think about discounting, changing displays or bringing forward merchandise that might be more appealing to passengers.
Be willing to arrange postage, offer a special discount or a small gift on purchase to cruise passengers to entice them into your store.
Be careful if you decide to advertise ‘duty free’ sales. You run the risk of breaching the Fair-Trading Act if there is no duty on the product in the first place. You can advertise goods as ‘tax free’.
Cruise passengers need a range of things, not just souvenirs – weather-related items (umbrellas or sunhats), pharmacy products (such as paracetamol or sunscreen) or grocery items are also wanted and can be expensive to buy on board.

Where do Cruise Ships visit?

Cruise ships can call into 17 New Zealand ports. However, 85% of cruise activity is concentrated in seven ports: Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Akaroa, Port Chalmers and Fiordland.

The Bay of Islands, Napier, and Picton also receive a significant proportion of cruise activity.

The most common cruise itinerary for New Zealand is trans-Tasman, which typically starts in Sydney, taking two nights to cross the Tasman Sea, then visits Fiordland, Port Chalmers, Lyttelton, or Akaroa, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, Auckland and the Bay of Islands before returning to Australia.

When do Cruise Ships visit New Zealand?

The season runs from September through to early May; however the bulk of large ships arrive between early October and the end of April.

The New Zealand Cruise Ship Association has produced a useful schedule which allows you to see when and where ships are docking throughout New Zealand. Please note, the schedule may be updated throughout the season as cruise lines amend bookings.

VIEW SCHEDULE

As always, if you are a Retail NZ member and have any issues, our Advice Service is here to help. You can email us, or call us on 0800 472 472 (1800 128 086 from Australia).

Our sources: Infometrics, Cruise Tourism Economic overview

Updated September 2025.