A new public survey shows Timaru district residents continue to support cruise ships visiting the region.
Venture Timaru conducted the survey to get feedback from the community about the influx of visitors, following one of the region’s busiest cruise seasons, when 12 ships visited.
Venture Timaru operations and destination manager Di Hay said the overwhelming feedback from the survey was that the community supported the cruise sector coming to Timaru and further, welcomed growth in the sector.
"Among the key positives identified by respondents was how locals enjoyed meeting and chatting to the cruise visitors walking through our CBD and surrounds," Ms Hay said.
Of the 144 respondents, 72% had interactions directly with cruise passengers. More than half of the interactions were as general members of the public, 24% were from retail businesses and 5% from hospitality businesses.
There were a few negative comments, such as concern about the environmental impact of the cruise sector, but many more positives were identified, such as visits adding vibrancy to the CBD and visits being good for the economy and promoting the district.
At this stage overall bookings for the 2024-25 season in New Zealand are slightly down on last season, and this is reflected in Timaru having a small drop in visits, now sitting at eight ships with passenger capacity of 6400.
