Cruise arrivals to pay $7.20 border levy from 2027
Cruise ship passengers arriving in New Zealand will pay $7.20 in border charges from 1 July 2027, down from $27.14.
Customs Minister Casey Costello announced the change. The charge for passengers leaving New Zealand on cruise ships will be $0.71, up by three cents, RNZ reported.
The Border Processing Levy helps pay for Customs work in processing people across the border. It was forecast to recover $124.3 million in those expenses in 2026/27.
The Government published details of the decision in a Beehive release titled Levy reduction for cruise industry. The release is listed on the Beehive website Beehive.
Customs figures show 866 cruise ship port visits were processed after the maritime border reopened on 31 July 2022. On 1 July 2024, the Cabinet Business Committee approved the public release of a consultation document on recovering the costs of the border.
An earlier Customs paper had put forward a different arriving cruise rate. It proposed lifting the charge from $16.441 to $28.50. That proposal predates the rates now set for 2027.
