Cruise ships

Despite a drop in the number of cruise ships expected to visit Dunedin in the 2013-14 season, local tourist operators have been told to expect a 6.2% rise in passenger numbers.

As the last cruise ship of the summer season sailed out of Otago Harbour yesterday, Dunedin began to measure the boost the ships and their passengers brought to the city's economy.

The Dunedin cruise ship season is winding down and the last multi-ship visit was yesterday.

The cruise ship Oosterdam is due to arrive in Port Chalmers this morning.

Passengers on all-inclusive cruises gain nearly half a kilogram a day on holiday, a survey shows.

It was ''love at first sight'' for Dutch couple Frans and Tessa Visser, who sailed into Dunedin yesterday aboard their very own love boat, Costa neoRomantica.

A record number of cancellations so early in the cruise ship season has left Dunedin businesses counting the cost.

Dunedin's tourism sector coped well with the biggest cruise ship to visit New Zealand, when Voyager of the Seas docked at Port Chalmers on Saturday.

Dawn Princess enters Otago Harbour, signalling the start of the record-breaking 2012-13 cruise ship season.

The cancellation of Dunedin's first cruise ship of the season has left a tourism operator "many tens of thousands of dollars" out of pocket.