Severe weather systems affecting the Tasman Sea, forced Norwegian Spirit — the last cruise ship scheduled to visit Dunedin this season — to cancel today’s stop.
Port Otago customer general manager Craig Usher said since the first vessel arrived on October 26 last year, the port had hosted 74 vessels — 62 at Port Chalmers and 12 at Dunedin wharves, including two superyachts.
There were also six maiden vessels, including a residential apartment ship.
In total, about 110,000 passengers and 47,000 crew members visited the city during the season.
"It's been a good season, besides a couple of omissions."
Mr Usher said the season was "noteworthy" for the relatively high number of cruise ship cancellations caused by severe weather.
"There were seven, but five of these were due to weather outside of Otago.
"Ironically, these particular days coincided with great weather in Dunedin."
He said the vessels were cancelled because Port Chalmers was often the first or last port of call in New Zealand, before they headed back to Australia, via Foveaux Strait.
Severe weather in the strait was typically what drove the cancellations, he said.
Enterprise Dunedin destination manager Teresa Fogarty said it was a shame the last boat was cancelled.
"We were looking forward to having our last hooray at the port.
"Apart from that, the season's been really good."
Although there were a high number of cancellations, it did not appear to affect the amount of money injected into the economy by tourists, she said.
It was estimated they spent about $33.8 million in the city, predominantly in local retail (about 27%), food and beverage (about 25%) and tour operators (about 19%).
"We were down on cruise ship passenger numbers, but tourist operators around the city said they definitely saw the tourist spend was up.
"We've heard from a number of our tourism providers and our retail and hospitality around, and they said they’d seen the drop in cruise ship tourist numbers offset by free and independent travellers who weren't off the cruise ships.
"And we did see a large increase in the amount that the people spent, even though the numbers were down."
She said work was now being done to make sure Dunedin remained high on the agenda for cruise ships.
"Dunedin has been singled out by cruise ships in the past for being one of the best places in New Zealand to cruise to.
"Although they’re only here for a short time, cruise ship passengers are a really big part of the economy for tourism in the city.
"So, we aim to be the best city, in the best country, for cruisers to come to and hopefully we can get those numbers back."
Mr Usher said Port Otago staff were also preparing to meet cruise lines at the end of this month, in Australia, to go through plans for next season.
"That's our annual visit, and we'll get some confirmation on the numbers for the season ahead."
He said the next season would begin again on October 21, 2026, with the arrival of Celebrity Edge and its 3373 passengers.
It will be the first of 85 "tentative" bookings for the 2026-27 season — up 8% on the 79 booked for 2024-25.
Of those already booked, 14 will visit between October and December 23 this year.
"It's great for the regional economy, that we've got an increase for the season ahead.
"Before you know it, we’ll be back in cruise mode. I’m looking forward to that."
