Jessica Elliott from Smiths Sports Shoes is bracing herself for a crazy busy weekend.
More than 13,000 cruise passengers and crew are set to descend on Tauranga over the weekend, with some Mount Maunganui retailers expecting to be "crazy busy".
Five cruise ships are due to sail into the Port of Tauranga over the next three days, including the Norwegian Jewel, which will be making its maiden voyage to the city.
Retailers spoken to by the Bay of Plenty Times said this would be their busiest trading weekend of the year.
Today, the 115,857 tonne cruise liner Diamond Princess was due to sail into the Port of Tauranga at 5.30am with 2670 passengers and 1050 crew on board, followed by the 10,944 tonne L'Austral with 404 passengers and crew at 8am.
Tomorrow , the Sea Princess, a 77,499 tonne vessel with 1990 passengers and 900 crew on board is set to arrive at 6.15am, and the Radiance Of The Seas with 2112 passengers and 859 crew is scheduled to dock 15 minutes later.
"It's something we look forward to every year, and it definitely gets busier every cruise season which is great for us and lots of other retailers," Wright said.
"Because we sell sports shoes from all over the world, lots of cruise ship passengers come in and they always tell we're so lucky to live in such a beautiful place. We agree."
Danielle Wright and Jessica Elliott from Smiths Sports Shoes bracing themselves for a crazy busy weekend.
Mount Brewing Company duty manager Tayler Bishoff said this weekend would be "humming", and staff always looked forward to welcoming the cruise visitors.
"This time we're going to open half an hour earlier in the mornings from today right through to Tuesday...Our cruise visitors definitely help our economy," he said.
Paper Plane assistant Abby Bakker said this would be the busiest weekend of the year.
"Because we sell Kiwi-made products, lots of cruise ship passengers like to buy mementos of their trip to Mount Maunganui and Tauranga which is great," she said.
Black Chaos clothing store operations manager Holly O'Connor said downtown Mount Maunganui would be packed out, with cruise passengers "adding to the buzz" and also bringing a welcome boost to the tills for many retailers.
Mount Mainstreet manager Ingrid Fleming said businesses were expecting a busier than normal summer this year, particularly this weekend.
"The cruise ship season is well under way, and it is definitely helping boost spending in the town centre which is fantastic," she said. Cruise passengers spent $59m in the Bay of Plenty region in the 2016-17 season, which was 20 per cent of the total national cruise passenger spend of $306 million.
Spending was ahead of all other New Zealand port destinations by at least $31m.
Tourism Bay of Plenty chief executive Kristin Dunne earlier said the growth in cruise ship visiting represented a significant economic opportunity for the community to maximise.
There would be 113 cruise ships visiting the region next cruise season bringing an expected 235,500 passengers and 102,100 crew.
Five cruise ships coming to Tauranga this weekend:
