Community perspectives on cruise tourism in Akaroa, New Zealand

Abstract

This paper reports on research undertaken to examine community perspectives on cruise tourism in Akaroa, New Zealand. Since the 2011/2012 Canterbury earthquakes, Akaroa has been hosting the majority of cruise ship arrivals to Canterbury. This has had significant impacts, both positive and negative, on the Akaroa community. A survey of 316 respondents from the community was undertaken in May 2013, and yielded an overall response rate of 56.6 per cent. The results indicate that despite a significant increase in cruise ship arrivals, the community holds a largely favourable opinion of cruise tourism. Contrary to other social impact research in tourism, increasing numbers of tourists does not appear to be the main issue or concern. Rather, the particular pattern of cruise visitation, and the impact of this on existing patterns of tourist visitation over the summer period, is of greater significance to the Akaroa community.