The Majestic Princess Cruise ship is set to dock at the Port of Tauranga next Saturday, October 15 – and Mount-based souvenir shop owner Ian New couldn't be happier.
The cruise ship is the first to enter Tauranga's port for two-and-a-half years after the Government closed maritime borders in March 2020 due to Covid-19.
As a tourism-based business owner, Ian had to close one of his two gift and souvenir shops in the Mount in the first year of the pandemic.
With cruise ships now on the horizon again – and more than 100 voyages expected to arrive in Tauranga for the 2022/2023 season – Ian is feeling positive about the future of his remaining Mount Maunganui store, Kiwiana Gifts & Souvenirs.
'It's looking promising this year,” says Ian. 'We've sat out a long time, for nearly two-and-a-half years and I think it's going to be really good this cruise ship season.”
Surprise shipment
The announcement of cruises returning this month has been surprising too, says Ian 'We had no information at all and now there's lots of them coming in, and one on the 15th of this month, and it's a big one – the Majestic Princess,” says Ian. The Majestic Princess hosts 3560 guests and 1346 crew who will be welcome to tourism-based businesses, with Ian saying: 'We need this to keep us going”.
Although he's looking forward to the return of cruise ships, he does find that he's pinching himself with the news. 'After two-and-a-half years of struggle it seems really strange that it's all coming back all of a sudden, rather than coming back in dribbles,” says Ian. 'It's like ‘bang' they're all back... is it real or is it not? Is the Government just joking with us and going to close the borders again?” says Ian, with a laugh.
Business-ready
Either way, the shop owner feels prepared for a surge in business from the cruise ships. 'We've kept good stock because we've had a lot of international people coming through in the past eight weeks anyway, like people going overseas and people coming here, so we've sold a lot of souvenirs,” says Ian. When borders were closed, Ian says: 'We went more towards giftware but now 50 per cent of the shop is going back to souvenirs”.
Ian has also noticed that suppliers have increased their prices of wholesale stock. 'We've got a lot of stock we're still holding down but a lot of things have gone up because our wholesalers have put their prices up in the past two months and I mean a lot…it's just inflation and its everywhere. 'We've just got to be positive and it'll be all good,” says Ian, who is proud that Kiwiana will be celebrating its 14th year this month too.
'I hope we just have a really good season to help us recover from the past two-and-a-half years of Covid-19. We've waited in there and it's going to happen!”