"The trick for us as a community is to actually give them more to spend on here," Mr Melgren said.
"We need to work smarter to give passengers more reason to stay here. From what I can gather, the industry works about $4m to $5m into the shops alone at the Mount.
"We've got product here that hasn't been developed and we need to," Mr Melgren said.
Kristin Dunne, Tourism Bay of Plenty head of communications and marketing, said 50 per cent of passengers pre-purchased cruise ship tours which took them out of town and the other half chose to go on local tours or explore on their own terms.
"The perception that everyone gets on a bus and goes to Rotorua isn't correct," Ms Dunne said.
"Fifty per cent of passengers book a ship tour, and we have no control over that whatsoever, and they go off with the tours that are offered."
Ms Dunne put the slight decrease in spend down to the economy and passenger spending.
"Our share of passengers staying in the local region is growing every year, so less passengers is definitely not a contributing factor to the lower spend," Ms Dunne said.
Mainstreet chair and Paperplus owner Jane Debenham said Mount Maunganui shops did not notice a drop in passenger spending last summer but is looking forward to the coming season when more cruise ship passengers were expected to hit the city's streets.
Cruise New Zealand has predicted increases in both of the next two seasons with $40.3m of spending expected in the 2015/2016 season and $40.8m in 2016/2017.
This season 78 ships are expected to visit Tauranga bringing with them 166,700 passengers. The 2016/2017 season is expected to see 80 ships visit our shores with 158,400 passengers.
The $1.25 billion mega cruise ship, Ovation of the Seas, will be the biggest cruise ship to visit New Zealand and is scheduled to come to the Bay in December next year. In the ship's first season alone, Ovation of the Seas is expected to inject nearly $1.7m into the local economy as a result of two calls in the Bay.
Total Bay of Plenty spend in cruise ship seasons
2011-2012: $31.5m
2012-2013: $38.6m
2013-2014: $37.7m
2014-2015: $35m
2015-2016 forecast: $40.3m
2016-2017 forecast: $40.8m
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