Thousands of tourists visit Napier as four luxury liners cruise in last week

The Seabourn Encore(left) and Noordam in Napier Port yesterday. Photo / Doug Laing

Napier's Marine Parade and CBD were again busy places to be on Friday as the city hosted two cruise ships together for the second time in a few days.

In port were luxury liner Seabourn Cruising's Seabourn Encore, with 600 passengers and 300 crew, and the 285m Holland America line's Noordam, with more than 1900 passengers and a crew of 800.

Last Monday the Port hosted a one-day record of about 9000 passengers and crew from the Ovation of the Seas and Sea Princess. Friday was expected to be the last time two cruise liners would be hosted this cruise season which ends with the Noordam in port on April 15.

Napier Port chief executive Todd Dawson says it was a "real coup" for Hawke's Bay and its tourism industry to have both the Ovation of the Seas and the Sea Princess in port together, and that businesses across the region would feel the benefit.

Asked about the future, and the bursting-at-the-seams that happened in Napier on last Monday, he said: "There is a limit to the size and number of ships we can safely berth at the Port today, but the new wharf we're working towards building will assist us in managing the growing number and sizes of cruise vessel visits we are expecting over the next few years."