{"id":106357,"date":"2025-10-29T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T03:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/106357\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T03:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T03:26:09","slug":"carnival-cruise-line-to-use-auckland-as-home-port-for-2027-winter-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/106357\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnival Cruise Line to use Auckland as home port for 2027 winter season"},"content":{"rendered":"Carnival Corporations & plc country manager Peter Little said it was exciting news for Kiwis, who will have their first opportunity to cruise from their doorstep.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarnival Cruise Line has answered the call from our New Zealand guests who\u2019ve been asking for more opportunities to book a convenient and great value cruise holiday, and we\u2019re delighted to be offering voyages from Auckland,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first home port for a cruise ship in New Zealand, as P&O Cruises\u2019 Pacific Explorer ship homeported in Auckland as recently as last year before it was sold.<\/p>\n
P&O merged with the Carnival Cruise Line in March earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The cruise line will have nine cruises throughout the home-port season, with a new four-night itinerary to Norfolk Island, nine and 10 night journeys to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, as well as a four night one-way voyage from Auckland to Sydney departing July 29, 2027.<\/p>\n
Minister for Tourism and Hospitality Louise Upston said the cruise industry was poised for another significant step forward with Carnival\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
\u201cA home port is where a cruise ship begins and ends its voyages, making Auckland a base for passenger boarding, provisioning and crew operations. Having a ship homeported here over winter is a real vote of confidence in New Zealand\u2019s tourism sector,\u201d Upston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision by Carnival means more visitors, more jobs and more opportunities for local businesses. That\u2019s great news for our Auckland hospitality, retail and accommodation sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement comes as New Zealand prepares to welcome an estimated 177,000 cruise visitors across nearly 40 ships during the 2025-2026 season.<\/p>\n
Upston said the Government recognised the growing contribution of cruise tourism to New Zealand, which has contributed $1.37 billion into the New Zealand economy over the last financial year.<\/p>\n
\u201cCruise is now extremely significant to tourism and is why I led a meeting with cruise and port sector representatives in July to discuss how we could all make the most of the opportunities and remove any barriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard to provide clarity on regulatory costs and support new ways to manage biofouling. Our Government has also set up a Fast-Track Approvals process supporting efficient consenting for much-needed infrastructure like Port of Auckland\u2019s development of a new wharf and passenger terminal for cruise vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government also confirmed ongoing cruise access to the Milford Sound earlier this year.<\/p>\n
She said that Carnival\u2019s announcement reinforces those decisions and reaffirms that New Zealand is open for business and is committed to supporting the cruise sector\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n
Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972 and carries almost five million guests every year.<\/p>\n
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n
Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business<\/a> podcast \u2013 the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an artificial intelligence (AI) voice as an easily digestible recap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carnival Corporations & plc country manager Peter Little said it was exciting news for Kiwis, who will have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18516,433,806,51,4463,138,60627,1656,2037,6440,1888,2082,1345,76693,1019,15220,111,139,69,29268,6926,17093,61,8238,6306,1533,23644,102,80],"class_list":["post-106357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-18516","tag-adventure","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-brand","tag-business","tag-carnival","tag-company","tag-cruise","tag-ever","tag-first","tag-for","tag-home","tag-homeport","tag-international","tag-line","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-port","tag-season","tag-ship","tag-to","tag-under","tag-use","tag-will","tag-winter","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}