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The return of cruise ships to Otago Harbour is on the horizon, Port Otago says.
When the 100% Otago Regional Council-owned company presented its half-yearly report to councillors yesterday, Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said port staff were anticipating the return of cruises in October this year.
The cruise industry could bring $75million a year into the regional economy and was a significant industry for the port company as well, Mr Winders said.
With 70% of cruise ship visitors coming from Australia it was encouraging the Australian cruise sector appeared to be planning to restart in a matter of months, he said.
The date cruise ships would return to New Zealand ports was subject to agreement with the Government, Mr Winders said.
But the New Zealand Cruise Association had been working with the Government to allow for the return of cruise ships shortly after the Australian market swung back into action, he said.
"We’re well under way in preparing for cruises to return. It won’t be in this financial year, but we’re expecting it to be in this calendar year," Mr Winders said.
"We’re all targeting October 2022."
Cr Kate Wilson challenged the port company to justify its "reliance" on the industry and its hopeful attitude towards its return given the cruise industry’s carbon emissions.
Port Otago chairman Paul Rea pushed back.
Mr Rea said for its own carbon accounting purposes Port Otago was very keen to handle cruise ships efficiently: to bring them into port when they want to come in, so cruise ships were not waiting for the port, and to get ships out when they wanted to go out so they were not waiting as they left either.
"I haven’t really analysed whether the cruise industry has a higher carbon footprint than the aviation industry per passenger, or not, but I suspect it depends on which way you look at it," Mr Rea said.
"Having 2000 or 4000 passengers driving around New Zealand to look at the sites in their own vehicles or in camper vans would surely have a higher carbon footprint than a cruise vessel."
The last cruise ships to disembark in Dunedin arrived in March 2020.