However, the chief executive of Port Otago has labelled the protesters "anti-business".
Early morning passengers aboard Ovation of the Seas, the last cruise ship of the season, were greeted to a different type of scenery on Dunedin’s horizon yesterday — a 70m-long by 10m-wide protest banner.
The banner, courtesy of Climate Liberation Aotearoa, is among a series of stunts by the group to draw attention to the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the cruise ship industry.
Spokeswoman Jen Olsen said the group had conducted about half a dozen protests in Dunedin to date, and believed yesterday’s display was one of its biggest yet.
"We really wanted to do something that the cruise ship passengers could see from the ship," Mrs Olsen said.
"It looks like it worked."
Mrs Olsen said cruise ships were highly emissive in terms of pollution and greenhouse gases, but were not included in some countries’ emissions targets.
The pollution from one cruise ship was equivalent to 1million cars and taking a holiday by cruise generated between three and four times the emissions of that from a plane.
Mrs Olsen said a goal of the group’s cruise ship campaign was to get cruise passengers themselves on board.
They had spoken to passengers while handing out pamphlets outside the Dunedin Railway Station, and she said the reaction to the banner had been mixed.
"Some of them understand what we’re doing.
"They’re not aware of the harm that cruise ships can cause ... but some of them are annoyed because they don’t want to be told, it’s a hard thing to hear.
"They think what they are doing is in our favour by coming here and spending money."
Mrs Olsen said everyone needed to know the consequences of their actions, and after speaking to passengers, she hoped this would be the last cruise for many of them.
Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said Ovation of the Seas had capped off a successful season of 117 visits in total to Dunedin, which had been great given the economic conditions.
Their team had done a great job throughout the year looking after the thousand of passengers and they had earned a well-deserved break.
"Just a shame that it was tarnished and our last visitors had to deal with the protesters there this morning," he said.
He said he had met the leaders of Climate Liberation Aotearoa before and while the display was a bit disappointing for the passengers, he was sure they still enjoyed a great day.
"It’s just a bit disappointing they’re targeting cruises cause they’re really just anti-business and would like to see effectively a whole lot less activity in our region and our city, so obviously they’re targeting the cruise ships to be able to get their point across."
