Contributing more than $60 million to the local economy — and rebounding from "zero" in the last financial year — Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said this season had been "quite a successful season".
"This year was a restart — that’s the way to look at it.
"Our team’s done a phenomenal job.
"We kept our cruise staff right through the pandemic — so proud we did — and they’ve made a helluva difference."
They could not be happier with the restart, Mr Winders said.
"It’s been fantastic for our community."
By the end of the season, cruise ships would have brought about 200,000 passengers into the city, he said.
The city was on track for 103 cruise ships this financial year.
There were six cancellations this year, including visits that were cancelled after ships ran afoul of New Zealand’s biofouling standards, he said.
Norwegian Spirit came to Otago Harbour at the weekend, making it the 85th cruise ship to visit this season.
After today’s visits from Grand Princess (86) and Seabourn Odyssey (87), there are now only 16 remaining scheduled visits this financial year.
Cruise lines continued selling tours around a "high summer period" and there was a bottleneck in the January-February height of the cruise season, Mr Winders said.
"We do have to work with the cruise lines over time to get that shoulder spread out if we can — that would make it a wee bit smoother.
"There’s plenty of capacity — we’ve just got to work with the cruise lines.
"That’s what we’ve got in front of us this year."
This year’s "teething problems" included a lack of bus drivers throughout the network.
However, the news from the cruise ship industry was that it was a global issue, and it appeared to be improving, he said.
This year, the construction of the shared path, or cycleway, in West Harbour had presented health and safety risks for KiwiRail.
Yet trains returning to pick up cruise ship passengers from the port was possible for next year, which would mean 300 passengers would board a train at the port and six fewer buses would be required, he said.
Dunedin’s busiest cruise ship season was the Covid-shortened 2019-20 season, when 126 boats had been due to arrive.
The last 10 ships never made it as pandemic measures forcing their cancellation came into effect, but the 116 vessels that year remains the most the city has hosted.
