While the wider tourism industry has been throttled by travel restrictions, Debbie Summers, chair of the New Zealand Cruise Association, told BusinessDesk that liners visits were steady.
"Cruise is a good news story for New Zealand tourism right now," she said. "We could stand to gain some more business as well, which small businesses are really going to need over the winter season."
Tourists who take cruises tend to be from Australasia or the United States, areas less affected by the virus outbreak. Asia makes up just 7% of the global cruising market.
"It is basically an emerging market, so it is not really affecting the numbers that are on our ships," Summers said.
"We are 80 percent through our cruise ship season now, so we've just 20 percent left to achieve and so far, we've held strong and held safe."
It has not been such smooth sailing for foreign cruise liners. US cruise stock Carnival Corporation has shed almost half its share price during the coronavirus outbreak.
One of its ships, Diamond Princess, was quarantined off the coast of Japan for two weeks last month. Dozens of people on board tested positive for the virus, and seven passengers died.
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has advised people to not take cruises to or within Asia.
If an outbreak occurs on a cruise ship, passengers are likely to be quarantined on the vessel for 14 days. New Zealand medical officers were this week given authority to place an entire ship in quarantine if it was suspected to have an outbreak.
Summers said the cruise industry has implemented its own strict policies to protect against outbreaks occurring on cruise liners. These include pre-screening to determine a person's travel and contact history. Boarding is denied to anyone who presents an increased risk, as well as to passengers or crew who have been in China in the past 14 days.
"It takes an extra four hours to process people embarking in New Zealand ports because of the strict measures the industry has put in place - which are stricter than airport borders," she said.
The Port of Tauranga yesterday said that a cruise ship docked at the port for the next five days was not in quarantine.
"From an operational perspective we just didn't want anyone to think it was quarantined or anything, because it is unusual to see a cruise ship parked up like that," a spokesperson for the port said.
Summers said the vessel had a five-day gap in its schedule after a private charter was cancelled.
The company that operates the ship, Holland America, announced this week that it would allow customers to cancel cruise bookings in exchange for a future credit to be used in the next two years.
Holland America said in a statement that this was to give travellers "peace of mind" during "uncertain times."
The cruise line operator has experienced other disruptions due to Covid-19. In Feburary, the Westerdam was denied entry to several countries due to concerns it may be carrying the virus, It was eventually permitted to disembark passengers at a port in Cambodia.
Summers said the generous cancellation polices designed to reassure nervous customers had reduced passenger numbers a little. However, some ports had been busier than usual as cruises redirected operations away from virus infected regions.
Carnival Corporation subsidiary Princess Cruises announced earlier this month that its ship Sapphire Princess would be redeployed from Asian waters to spend a winter season in Australia, adding 44 new cruises from five major cities.
New Zealand had also picked up extra calls although not to the extent Australia had, Summers said.
She said cruises create 'ambassadors' who spread knowledge of New Zealand around the world and attract more tourists to our shores. That could help support the recovery after the virus outbreak has died down.
