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AUCKLAND CRUISEIn the decade to 2010 theworldwide cruise industryis expected to grow 70% toover 17 million passengers.New Zealand and particularlyAuckland, is benefiting fromthis growth. A significant58% up on last season,2007/2008 is a boom cruiseseason for Auckland whichwill host 30 cruise ships andtheir 73 cruises with theiraccompanying 101,945passengers – a growth of58% in cruises. Most relevantis the fact that these cruisepassengers will spend384,500 days in NZ ports,contributing NZ$378 milliondirectly to the NZ economy.*On average each cruise shipcall contributes NZ$1 millionto the regional economywhich means Auckland regioncan expect to earn NZ$85million in the 2007/2008cruise ship season.12As the country’s premier cruiseexchange port with a 50% majoritymarket share of the NZ cruise business,Auckland is the NZ port where mostpassengers either begin or endtheir cruise.Last season Auckland catered for 46 portcalls by 21 cruise ships including the QueenMary 2 – the biggest ship ever to visit NZ.She arrived in a cruise milestone weekin February 2007 when nine cruise shipsarrived in a five day period including two largeships on the same day. With passengersdisembarking and embarking, this was thebiggest passenger exchange POAL had everhandled – close to 8,000 people in one day– equivalent to over 19 jumbo aircraft. In justthat one visit, the larger of the two vessels,the Sapphire Princess, would generate7,000 hotel nights in the Auckland region byprimarily US passengers arriving to join orleave the cruise.In Ports of Auckland’s (POAL) MarineDepartment, which manages operations atthe Overseas Passenger Terminal, CruiseOperations Supervisor, Leigh Robins, saysthat no other port in NZ can conduct a fullpassenger exchange on the scale that Portsof Auckland does. “We are the only port inNZ with two passenger terminals and twodedicated cruise ship gangways. PrincesWharf is the primary cruise berth and ourbackup cruise berth is Queens Wharf wheresignificant improvements have been made tomeet forecast growth. This growth has beengenerated through increased repeat businessfrom the larger cruise lines and from first timecallers including Celebrity Cruises as well asregular customers such as Princess Cruises,Holland America and P&O Cruises. Withthe increase and popularity of winter cruiseprogrammes, our cruise season has also beenextended from the original November to Aprilsix month season to an 11 month October toAugust season.”In a recent competitive move to help secure itsmarket share of the valuable cruise business,POAL has formed a joint venture companyto ensure an uninterrupted security of fuelsupply. A new bunker barge, the Awanuia, willoperate a bunkering delivery system collectingfuel from Marsden Point and transferring itdirectly to customers’ ships at their berths atPOAL. According to Wayne Mills, POAL GeneralManager Port Services, this will eliminate theneed for future fuel storage at the Wynyardtank farm. “Security of fuel supply is particularlyimportant for cruise ships whose averagerange is only 10 to 14 days. At present cruisevessels use about 30% of the 100,000 tonnesof bunker fuel we provide at POAL each year”.He says that without the improved bunkeringfacilities, Auckland would risk losing many of itscruise ship callers. “They could refuel at otherNZ ports instead and certainly, round the worldcruise ships could opt to refuel in Australia andcut NZ out of their itineraries completely.”The majority of cruise calls to the port ofAuckland are for 12 hour visits and most entailfull passenger exchanges. Leigh Robins andher team commence preparations for eachof the cruise calls 12 months beforehandwhen the booking is made. “We are working inconjunction with tour operators, NZ Customsand MAF (Ministry of Agriculture), ships agents,our security and traffic control contractors andthe various other parties such as stevedores.“A week prior to a ship’s arrival, we confirmsecurity requirements and equipment such