Latest / Best of Business / Roger Gray: Port of Auckland CEO on the plan to boost New Zealand’s sinking cruise industry

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Roger Gray: Port of Auckland CEO on the plan to boost New Zealand’s sinking cruise industry · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Port of Auckland is keen to get more cruise ships
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  Speaker 3: coming to Auckland. Obviously, we need more cruise ships coming
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  Speaker 3: to the entire country. At the moment, they're bringing in
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  Speaker 3: about a billion dollars and that's apparently without us even trying.
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  Speaker 3: The port's chief executive, Roger Gray, is with us.
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  Speaker 2: High Roger, Hi, Heather, how are you very well?
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  Speaker 3: Good to talk to you, mate. So what is the
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  Speaker 3: state of play with the cruise ships at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: So we're having a bit of a flat season this
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  Speaker 2: coming year. We're down to about eighty visits now, that's
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  Speaker 2: down from the peak of one hundred and thirty straight
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  Speaker 2: out to COVID. But I think we'll settle over the
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  Speaker 2: next couple of years at about one hundred calls a year.
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  Speaker 3: And where would you like to be?
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, look, once we're above one hundred, I'm starting
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  Speaker 2: to get into a position where I think the city's
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  Speaker 2: really going to be pumping. So we've got to get
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  Speaker 2: back those twenty extra calls and we're working hard to
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  Speaker 2: do that.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so what is your plan for how to do it?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's a couple of things. One, we're investing in
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  Speaker 2: big infrastructure. So right now we're pushing on with the
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  Speaker 2: Bletizoe Norse Wharf, which will allow the really big ships
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  Speaker 2: to come in, like ovations of the sea and Celebrity Edge.
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  Speaker 2: That'll be open in March next year. That was the
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  Speaker 2: first fast track project to proof it'll be finished two
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  Speaker 2: years after we applied. We're also building a new cruise
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  Speaker 2: terminal that will also or stage one of that will
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  Speaker 2: open in March next year. So that's over one hundred
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  Speaker 2: million were spending on infrastructure. And then today we announce
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  Speaker 2: that we'll be building more investment in Shed teen on
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  Speaker 2: Queen's Wharf to also improve the customer experience. So we're
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  Speaker 2: giving the cruise line to the right infrastructure, and then
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  Speaker 2: from there we're going about working out how best we
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  Speaker 2: can attract them, solving problems like biofouling of their hules
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  Speaker 2: and those sorts of things. So we're feeling very confident
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  Speaker 2: talking to some of the execs today, they're interested in
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  Speaker 2: coming back.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I see. One of the parts of the plan
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  Speaker 3: is to create a seamless airport to port experience is
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  Speaker 3: that for people? Are we talking about people landing at
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  Speaker 3: the airport in the getting on a cruise ship and
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  Speaker 3: leaving all the other way around.
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  Speaker 2: It's both, and we certainly are working in partnership with
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  Speaker 2: Auckland Airport. They're also investing in incredible infrastructure growth. So
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  Speaker 2: we want to make both of the entrance at the
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  Speaker 2: port and at the airport, you know, justify for a
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  Speaker 2: global city. We're going to do that, and then we'll
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  Speaker 2: be building a really seamless model so you can land
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  Speaker 2: on your plane, head straight in, get your bags onto
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  Speaker 2: the ship, and then you're on in a way.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I see. Also, I mean, and this is
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  Speaker 3: a really good point to make, which is that we
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  Speaker 3: kind of need to really hone in on the cultural
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  Speaker 3: aspect of New Zealand because it is very distinctive for us.
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  Speaker 2: How do you do that, Well, we've been doing quite
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  Speaker 2: a lot of work with our architects and also with
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  Speaker 2: Nachi Fatake on really reflecting the great, the great cultural
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  Speaker 2: diversity of New Zealand. So when you see the design
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  Speaker 2: of the new cruise terminal and you come along to
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  Speaker 2: the opening in March, you'll see the great aspects of
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand's color to reflected in the design of a building.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, brilliant stuff. Roger, thank you very much for talking
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  Speaker 3: to us about it, and good luck with the plan.
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  Speaker 3: I believe in you. It's Roger Gray, Port of Auckland,
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  Speaker 3: Chief executive.
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