Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jacqui Lloyd: Cruise Association CEO on the new dedicated cruise terminal opening in Auckland next year

Transcript

Jacqui Lloyd: Cruise Association CEO on the new dedicated cruise terminal opening in Auckland next year · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Downtown. Auckland's getting a new cruise terminal. Port of Auckland's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: doing it two hundred million bucks. They Reckon opens March
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven. Potential to double ship calls to one
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty a year, could add an extra one
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand terrists as well. Jackie Lloyd, New Zealand Cruiz
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Association CEO, with me this morning, Jackie.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning Ryan.
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  Speaker 1: So how big is this? How big of a deal
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  Speaker 1: is this?
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  Speaker 2: This is a game changer, really is for Auckland and
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  Speaker 2: also for New Zealand. We're absolutely thrilled that Porter is
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: going through with this work. And from a cruise industry
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  Speaker 2: point of view, it really shows that New Zealand and
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  Speaker 2: Auckland welcomes and wants cruise lines.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What bit changes is it the four and a half
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  Speaker 1: thousand plus the big ships.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's a bit of a mix of all. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: certainly they can go up to four and a half thousand,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: but certainly my understanding is smaller ships can still use
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the space as well. But what it does is it
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: creates a dedicated welcome area to people visiting New Land
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that are disembarking off ships. Currently they're using temporary locations
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that have to sort of to be built in the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: morning and taken down in the afternoon. We've got a
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: really a dedicated welcome and a dedicated infrastructure for cruise
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  Speaker 2: which is fantastic.
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  Speaker 1: Does it look a bit povo when they get off
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  Speaker 1: at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's just put it this way. We've been using
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  Speaker 2: temporary space for the last twenty years. If you think
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: that where cruise lines coming at Prince's Wharf by using
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  Speaker 2: the Hilton's conference space that was really supposed to be
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  Speaker 2: a temporary EFEX back in the early two thousands and
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  Speaker 2: here in twenty twenty six we're still using it. So
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: to have that dedicated space where MPI, where customs can
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: be based full term, and also to have a welcoming
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  Speaker 2: check in area and dedicated space for coaches and buses
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  Speaker 2: and also for taxis is really.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Important, fantastic. It includes the new Blidislow North Wharf. Where's that?
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  Speaker 2: So that from my understanding is about two three across
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  Speaker 2: to the east of Queenswarf so still very much in
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  Speaker 2: walking distance from downtown Auckland, which is a key part
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  Speaker 2: of the positivity I guess of cruise finds coming into Auckland,
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  Speaker 2: they can have passengers that walk directly off the ship
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  Speaker 2: and straight into town to go shopping, to go to hotels,
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  Speaker 2: to go to retail and or so to hospitality.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Has part of the product, like do we have a
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  Speaker 1: problem with attracting tourists who want to come cruising here
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: or has the problem being just our facilities that the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: companies that run the ships actually don't want to go
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and have a temporary lift of steers coming to pick
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: them up.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Look, it's a little bit of a mix of from
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: an infrastructure point of view and from a welcome point
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  Speaker 2: of view. So there is still a really strong interest
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: in cruises coming to New Zealand. You know, cruise at
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the moment is around thirty seven million cruise passengers globally.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: That's up from thirteen million back in twenty ten, so
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  Speaker 2: it's a huge growth. But what we have been is
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: probably quite an unwelcoming country for the last wee while
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: we've had changing and costs and increases, we're aout changes
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and regulations and we've not really looked like we wanted
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: to have the cruise industry and cruise passengers in in
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  Speaker 2: our areas. And this dedicated terminal for cruise and a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: cruise birth in Auckland really really does change that mindset
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: for the crew.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Sign brilliant, Jackie. Good to talk to you this morning,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: as always, Jackie Lloyd, New Zealand Cruise Association. For more
• 3:22
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