Passengers just love cruising into Napier

Napier is a top ranked destination for cruise ships.

Napier is one of the top ranking destinations for cruise ships.

The annual Economic Import report released at the Cruise New Zealand Conference 2015 has seen Napier City and the Port of Napier excel in terms of visitor experience.

The city got top marks from 84 per cent of surveyed cruise ship visitors to Napier who said they felt "very welcomed".

Expectations were also exceeded for 42 per cent of visitors, the survey revealed.

Both of these were the highest ranked performance of all ports in the country.

This year's cruise season saw 98,100 cruise ship passengers disembark at the Port of Napier.

Just over half the visitors were Australian, with the rest made up from the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and China.

More than 60 per cent of cruise ship passengers said they were "extremely likely" to recommend Napier as a cruise-ship destination with the remaining 40 being "very likely".

Again, Napier results scored the highest.

Napier i-SITE manager Jane Libby said she was thrilled with the survey results.

"We work very hard to deliver exceptional service to our cruise ship passengers both before they arrive and once they are onshore and are very proud to have received such high accolades"

Hawke's Bay Tourism general manager Annie Dundas said cruise ship business was good for Hawke's Bay.

"We know cruise ship passengers have a very high return rate so their first time experience is very important and to rank this highly in terms of visitor experience is a real credit to the Port, Napier City, the Napier i-SITE and the tourism operators who service this industry."

The cruise sector contributed $436 million in value-added earnings to the New Zealand economy in the 2014-15 season and supported 8365 jobs with excellent potential for growth.

The first ship into Hawke's Bay for the 2015-2016 cruise season arrives on October 17.