File image. Photo: GREG WOOD / AFP
Is the value of cruise ships to local economies
The cruise ship industry is being challenged to show its workings following a report it issued saying cruise tourism injected $1.37 billion into the New Zealand economy in the last financial year.
The report, commissioned by Cruise Lines International Association Australasia and New Zealand Cruise Association, has not been released widely.
However, a press release and infographic released by the organisations reported direct spending by passengers, crew and cruise lines reached $637 million last financial year with an indirect benefit to the local economy of $729.2 million and that close to 10,000 local jobs were supported by cruise tourism, providing $425.9 million in wages.
Peter Nuttall is the scientific and technical advisor at Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport, the group behind a push for the International Maritime Organisation to implement a worldwide carbon levy on shipping.
He told Morning Report there was no way to verify the data being reported.
"Why did the New Zealand media just accept this at face value? Apparently no journalist has actually seen this report and yet every media outlet is reporting this as factual information," Nuttall said.
He said data produced did not line up with the international literature in this field or appear to have taken on social good or environmental externalities from the industry "as would appear to be a narrow report of the facts".
"Firstly what we'd like to see is transparency in the data reporting so that you can cross examine the claims that are being made by industry."
There was very little data and information published other than what the industry produced, he said.
Chartered environmentalist, director of Sailing for Sustainability and advisor to the Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport Alison Newell agreed that without the full report being released, it was difficult to assess the indirect benefit figures that were provided.
Newell said her request for the full report was declined.
"It's the granularity of detail that they're providing which is problematic.
"The reality is that these cruise liners, when a passenger goes on a cruise they buy a package, that includes the accommodation and the majority of the food. One of the interesting things that's become apparent in the international literature is that as cruise liners have become bigger, they provide more facilities on the vessels themselves.
"So these are basically huge, industrial, 20-storey-high resorts that come fully provided with duty free shops, restaurants, cinemas and all the entertainment.
"One report that I saw showed that the passenger spend was actually one third was spent on the vessel, but that level of detail is not provided from the latest report from the industry," she said.
Nuttall said Stats NZ, between 2015 up until present day, had been collecting specific data on the cruise industry "however due to the budget cuts in Wellington we understand that that data will no longer be specifically carried by Stats NZ".
"This is a very important industry, these huge claims are being made about it but there is no independent verification happening currently and that's the gap that needs to be filled."
New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Jacqui Lloyd told Morning Report the key reason the report wasn't released in full was because it was a member benefit.
"So we're a small industry association, we have a small amount of members that allow us to do the work that we need to do and part of that benefit is to have access to our core data sets which we've created for the first time this year."
Stats NZ has not collected cruise data since the pandemic, Lloyd said.
"So we've been running a little bit blind for the last season or two and so this was our opportunity to fund something through our membership that we give that benefit back to members."
The methodology has now been added to the website, she said, and regional council members, courts and government have been given the full document.
Lloyd said many jobs were created solely to service the cruise industry like at the ports, coach drivers and tourist guides who opened on days solely for cruise passengers.
"What we see on average is about 95 percent of passengers will get off the ship when it comes into port, when it's a tender port, so when they're coming in by small tender, where they don't actually come into the port itself, that might sit at around 80 percent of passengers get off the ship.
"They will do one of three things, either they've pre booked on a shore excursion with the cruise line and they'll go and do a tour out around the region, they may come off shore and have something that they've pre booked themselves through online travel agents, they might have found something on a website or gone into a visitor centre and booked something for the day or the remaining third tend to wander off and do shopping around local retail and local hospitality."
Infrastructure builds do not appear in the report, she said.