Annie Dundas: Auckland Unlimited Destination Director on the 10 year plan to strengthen cruise competitiveness

Auckland wants to put its best foot forward as a cruise destination. 

Auckland Unlimited and the city's port have unveiled a 10 year plan focused on strengthening areas like visitor experience, infrastructure, and the environment. 

This comes after the country lost around 250 port calls last season compared to the previous season, and is set to lose about 20 this summer. 

Auckland Unlimited Destination Director Annie Dundas told Mike Hosking cruise lines have so much choice in where they can travel, and we have to be competitive, or we’ll miss out on a billion-dollar industry. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Funny. Our relationship with the cruise industry continues to develop.
This morning, Auckland have launched a ten year plan aiming
to make the city Oceania's leading urban cruise hub. Right now,
the industry is worth just under a quarter billion, supports
thirty seven hundred odd jobs. Annie Dundas's director of Destination
at to Auckland Unlimited. Of course, issus back with us
anday morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
How much of what you're looking to do as Auckland
as a city is hindered or tied up with what
we as a country seem to be doing with the
cruise industry, which is, as far as I can work out, problematic.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Look, we've got to get Auckland right. We get Auckland right,
the rest of the country works on cruise. So you
know the government is working in lockstep with us with
ports across the country to make sure we get the
settings right because we've had a reputation of being no
Zealand and now we've got to kind of open our
doors back up again.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Is that you saying that or is that as we
as a country now saying that have the rules been sorted.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well in Auckland. We're certainly making in roads and the
government is certainly pushing for much more consistency around charging,
around biofueling, around a whole bunch of bunch of settings
that we have to get right for cruise lines. You know,
cruise lines have got so much choice in terms of
where they want to travel and if we don't have
which we have to be competitive, otherwise we miss out
on a billion dollar industry.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
So where are we at with that? Is everyone on
the same page and we get that or are you
still facing pushback from certain people.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
We are on the same page. We're on a bit
of a journey. We've had a big dip in arrivals
from cruise in the last two years because deployment decisions
are made so far in advance. But we do feel
like we've plateaued and we're starting to see that we've
you know, we've hit rock bottom and now we're kind
of coming back out in terms of deployment. So things are,
the settings are moving, ports are working together and we
are trying to get a better result out of us.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
That was my next question is is there a collab
with the ports you tower on as your napiers, et cetera.
Around the country or not.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh absolutely. So we have an New Zealand Cruise Association
that sets that they have a strategy and our strategy
falls very much into line with them, so that we
are making sure all ports are on the same page.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you have a sales pitch you've got to give
the cruise lines or will they come on board when
you say, look, sorry about all this other stuff, We're open,
let's go all we do.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Have to We've got to talk about our infrastructure developments
that we're working on, which are going to mean that
allt can can take three ships at one time. We
want to improve this sort. We want to make it
more seamless for passengers as they get off the ship
and how they obviously connect with things like the airport,
because ultimately a lot of people fly in and then
jump on a cruise. So how do we make things
more seamless, How do we make the welcome more en
daring for visitors so that they get a sense of

(02:34):
what Auckland is as a city, And that's the first
point often for many before they head around the country.
So we've got to do it right here and then
obviously in every other port too.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
All I can do is wish you the best with
that any any Dundas Director of Destination at Auckland Unlimited
is the weirdest sole thing where tourisms are calling card
along with dairy and farming, and we made a part
of tourism difficult. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

(03:03):
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