UPDATE: Devastating decision bewilders NZ cruise industry
Following last week's news, Accom News has learned of further cruise sector developments.
A statement from New Zealand Cruise Association says it is devastated to learn that Ponant has been forced to cease its plans to bring Le Laperouse to New Zealand, offering local cruises for Kiwis only.
Ponant was granted permission to operate by the Ministry of Health, in consultation with other Departments, in late December 2020, only to be denied entry by Immigration New Zealand at the last moment prior to arriving in New Zealand.
Many once-flourishing Kiwi companies country-wide are dependent on the cruise industry and are now even more concerned for their livelihoods. Le Laperouse would have safely brought more than $6m to New Zealand’s tourism economy.
NZCA CEO Kevin O’Sullivan says: “This cruel blow will be even more keenly felt within our harder hit regional communities. Now all opportunity has gone for this season and with it the small glimmer of hope that we all had. The industry has been abandoned by our Government.”
Mr O’Sullivan says New Zealand government departments must work better together. “We deserve that as a nation. We must start working together to provide a pathway for resumption. It can be done. This should never have happened and this has, sadly, badly tarnished our country’s previous cruise-friendly reputation.”
NZCA has requested meetings with Tourism Minister Stuart Nash since he has taken office but requests so far have been deferred.
The New Zealand Cruise Association is “shocked and quite simply bewildered” to see that Immigration NZ has abruptly chosen to prevent the Ponant ship Le Laperouse from coming to New Zealand despite having the green light from the Ministry of Health.
The New Zealand Government (through the Ministry of Health) granted an exemption last December to permit the ship to operate domestically in New Zealand, carrying a maximum of 100 passengers.
At the extremely last minute, Immigration NZ has now denied entry for some of the ship’s crew who they have deemed to be non-essential. NZCA believes that all the ship’s crew are essential to its operation and they cannot be replaced by New Zealanders in such a short time.
It is a case of one ministry giving and another taking away. Government departments must begin to talk to each other, not take separate action which once again greatly harms the tourism industry, NZCA Chief Executive Officer Kevin O’Sullivan says.
“The minister of immigration has tried to paint the decision as the fault of Ponant for not following procedure, but it is not so. As soon as the exemption was granted Ponant provided information to Immigration NZ on visa requirements for the ship’s crew, giving ample time for a response and following up with an application when they had assembled the information requested more than three weeks ago. They did everything that was requested by the New Zealand government in order to offer safe domestic cruising in New Zealand”.
To comply with COVID-19 requirements to isolate crew, the ship has been slow steaming from its last port, testing everyone on board regularly. Le Laperouse was due in Auckland tomorrow for fuelling, maintenance work and New Zealand COVID-19 testing, with the first voyage beginning 8 February.
The association says “this is a significant and devastating blow to the New Zealand tourism industry and to all those businesses that were relying on this one cruise ship to bring them some small glimmer of hope in the resurgence of regional cruise tourism. Of course, the 700 Kiwi guests who had planned on enjoying a voyage will be most upset too.
“This decision by Immigration NZ tarnishes New Zealand as a cruise friendly destination, undoing years of hard work. It is quite simply not good enough”.
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