50 years of cruise ship visits to Otago

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The arrival of Sun Princess at Port Chalmers this morning marks exactly 50 years since the first cruise ship made its way into Otago Harbour.

On December 23, 1961, thousands of Dunedin residents cheered, sang and waved as MS Seven Seas headed for Birch St wharf in Dunedin.

Seven Seas had sailed from England but when it arrived in Dunedin it had on board 470 Australian and New Zealand passengers.

Since then, Otago Harbour's two ports have had 616 cruise ship visits - as of today - the vast majority in the past 10 years, says Otago Daily Times shipping writer Doug Wright.

That figure is expected to increase sharply, with five visits to Port Chalmers this week alone, including two on Christmas Day, and one small cruise ship, the Oceanic Discoverer, which would call at Dunedin on Monday.

Speaking from Sydney, Ann Sherry, chief executive of Carnival Australia - part of the British-American owned Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc which claims to have 60% of the global cruise ship market - told the ODT this week her goal was to increase numbers from the 600,000 passengers carried this year to one million by 2020.

"We've been growing on average 18% for the last five years but we are still nowhere near the cruising penetration of the United States or United Kingdom market."

Ms Sherry said Australia and New Zealand was a "huge growth" area for the company.

"Australia and New Zealand is the fastest-growing market in the world."

And as that growth continued, she believed Dunedin could expect more and bigger ships to come - the dimensions of ports in both countries being a limiting factor.

She estimated the value to Dunedin of having "a couple of thousand" passengers in the city for a day at "probably more than $2 million.

"Given how soft retail and everything has been ... it might be what Dunedin needs."

Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton said a University of Otago study showed in a season when 160,000 passengers and 66,000 crew called, the economic benefit to Dunedin would be $17 million.

Mr Saxton said cruise ships were taking some of the traditional tour bus traffic, giving cities like Dunedin, with a port, an advantage over inland tourist towns.

Ms Sherry said Dunedin also had an advantage in usually being the first place where passengers could disembark after crossing the Tasman Sea.

"Virtually everybody wants to get off the ship and get on dry land for a day and have a wander around."

While cruise ship visits are becoming commonplace, 50 years ago they really were a novelty.

Greeting Seven Seas, Cr E. Whittlestone, standing in for mayor T.K.S. Sidey, noted a "unique occasion".

"The Seven Seas is the first cruise ship to come to Dunedin and we are delighted to have her here."

As Otago harbourmaster Captain P.M. Church piloted the ship up the channel, Captain Hinrich Oltmann described the countryside as being "just like Bavaria".

Seven Seas' band played in a style "straight from a German beer hall".

The ODT reported a "rush" on souvenirs at the Birch St wharf before 340 passengers boarded buses for a tour of the University of Otago, Botanic Garden, Waitati, and the Otago Peninsula.