Wait?
WHAT!
We have to feel sad for the Swine Palace Industry?
- New Zealand faces a downturn in cruise ship traffic due to rising costs, ageing infrastructure, and strict regulations.
- The bio-fouling regulations have particularly frustrated cruise lines, impacting port revenues and regional councils.
- A collaborative approach is needed between the Government and the cruise sector to address these challenges.
Fifteen years ago, I was on board a cruise ship whose captain was a friend of ours. I was doing research on economic risk in the New Zealand cruise sector for my Masters degree. My friend, looking very much in command in his crisp uniform, looked at me and said point-blank: “The first time New Zealand makes a mistake, the ships will stay away.”
In contrast, his next words were far less bleak and, in fact, encouraging. He told me that Auckland had the potential to become the marquee port for the South Pacific, wresting that accolade away from Sydney.
Disappointingly, though, it is the former prophecy that has come true. The kinds of mistakes that he was talking about then could be anything from, for example, rocking up with unsatisfactory infrastructure (eg terminals, wharves, etc), to making New Zealand too expensive to operate a cruise ship in, to imposing regulations that overreach their intended purpose.
These dirty filthy bloated swine palaces must be destroyed!
They are toxic environmental floating hazards that lock off our public space for these corporations.
Princes Wharf and Queens Wharf are supposed to be open for Aucklanders but when Cruise ships are in Port those Wharfs are closed off to the Public – there are about 100 cruise ships visiting Auckland each year – that’s 100 days Aucklanders can’t use their waterfront – how many bloated swine palaces are too many bloated swine palaces?
These bloated swine palaces are the perfect example of unsustainable economic growth.
Put aside their astronomical pollution, sure, they make money for the Port, there are replenishment dollars to be had, but the tourists flood downtown Auckland pushing up the store rentals at the bottom of Queen street for expensive international brand’s that locals don’t buy while the homeless sit outside the Dior and Gucci stores begging.
Isn’t that juxtaposition of beggars and luxury brands the very wrong type of Auckland we have built?
The never ending mass tourism is already causing Auckland infrastructure to groan and is turning most of our sight seeing spots around the country into never ending queues and open long drops.
Before Covid In 2018, Auckland Airport received 2.72million tourists, that’s almost 3 times Aucklands entire population gridlocking that roading network.
I’m glad the Tourism Tax has been increased to $100 but I question if that is just revenue gouging or will the money be sunk into local infrastructure to handle this level of hyper tourism.
On a planet rapidly warming, we should be looking to limit tourism, not expand them!
We need the anti-hyperTourism protests we are seeing in Europe…
Protests in Europe Target Mass Tourism With Squirt Guns and Roller Bags
…this all as Tourism NZ hilariously relaunches the 100% Pure Greenwash campaign…
Tourism NZ launches new 100% Pure New Zealand global campaign
Tourism New Zealand has launched a new global campaign with a familiar twist, inviting the world to find their 100% Pure New Zealand.
It’s the first new global brand campaign since ‘If You Seek’ was launched in 2022 and aims to encourage travellers to book now with snapshots of the iconic landscapes and experiences on offer.
…the unbelievable audacity of us just pretending we are green RIGHT AFTER International Climate Scientists attacked Chris Luxon publicly!
Firstly – if you actually gave a shit about the environment, flying all the way to NZ with the carbon that emits would be the last thing you would do.
Secondly, we are a country politically compromised by the big polluters and are utterly beholden to them!
The Swine Place Industry demanding we weep for them is an audacity too far!
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Martyn – Akaroa, a small town, struggles with this industry…and despite numerous promises from Cruise Companys’ to help out Akaroa – nothing has been done.
Overcrowding and the small supermarket being sold out – meaning the locals have to drive 90 minutes away to the nearest Supermarket – over numerous hills.
The author of this article is anonymous, so addressing a response to Martyn may be misdirected.
Richard Christie – Well spotted…
No sympathy for cruise ships. Utter leaches.
They add value to nothing.
They are a plague on our country and every country the visit. Don’t tell me they help the local economy. Buying a few trinkets??? No!
If NZ doesn’t have tourism and dairying, how is it going to pay for NZ Super and the Health system?
NZ hasn’t developed anything else, certainly nothing with high productivity that doesn’t need a subsidy.
That’s because the sleepy hobbits didn’t like change or disruption, their house was increasing in value, the journalists told them NZ and its people were ‘special’, and they trusted the Government – it would always look after them and provide for them.
Cruise ships really are disgusting.
Shame on anyone who uses such means to wreck our environment.
And the thought of travelling the world in a shitty incubator of germs is also totally disgusting. Spain has had enough of this inundation of mass tourism but it’s primarily Air B&B at fault there.