A Matua woman who utilised a high seas holiday cruise to gather Tauranga tourism data has uncovered what she believes to be a litany of lost marketing opportunities for the Bay of Plenty.

'I hate to say it,” says Wendy Napier-Walker. 'But we have missed the boat.”

Questioning cruiser Wendy Napier-Walker with the Tauranga brochure showing one Tauranga tour out of eight offered to passengers on the cruise boat. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

The former diplomatic corp worker spent 13 days aboard the cruise liner Dawn Princess, relaxing and compiling a passenger's perspective marketing analysis of how the Bay of Plenty is sold and received.

Wendy concludes tours are too expensive, Tauranga did not register with passengers, the city is perceived as a gateway to Rotorua and passengers are more impressed with Napier.

She also believes cruise ship passengers get dated, inaccurate and confusing information about the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga needs to be more welcoming – and the city needs a theme to sell.

Wendy cruised Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Akaroa, Port Chalmers, Fiordland and Melbourne.

As result, she believes she could make a reasonable comparative assessment of New Zealand ports of calls after questioning passengers, attending passenger briefings, absorbing passenger information and brochures and, more importantly, experiencing the Tauranga stopover.

For example, the port guides supplied to passengers on-board the liner are prepared in North America – the Tauranga map is out of date, images are blurry and obscure, there could be confusion about the locality of the shopping area at the Mount and population figures are nearly 10 years out of date.

That is just symptomatic, says Wendy.

There were nearly 2000 passengers on the cruise – most were Australian with a smattering of Kiwis and Americans. Passengers Wendy mingled with complained tours out of Mount Maunganui are too expensive.

A top-end tour like the Rotorua and Polynesian spa experience would cost an adult $299 and a child $229 and a Waimangu Valley and Rainbow Spring tour costs $239 and $169 respectively.

'Many passengers preferred to do their own thing” says Wendy.

And while they disembarked at Mount Maunganui, it's the sulphur city that was in their faces.

An information kiosk on the wharf was decked out in ‘Discover Rotorua' banners, just inside the kiosk was a stand with Rotorua brochures and other information on Rotorua.

'You could easily have missed Tauranga, the local shopping and Hobbiton, which is not even in our region,” she says. 'There was little attempt to promote Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty.”

Even the commercial heart of Mount Maunganui doesn't get a mention in a ‘Shopping Spotlight' publication aimed at assisting and directing shoppers before they arrive here.

And when Wendy solicited feedback from passengers, 'they said Tauranga did not register with them”.

”They were more impressed by Napier's art deco theme and port farewell featuring vintage cars, people in period costumes and a band. There was no welcome or farewell in Tauranga.”

She suggests Tauranga needs a theme to titillate tourists. 'You can't sell a secret.”

'It's all about first impressions,” she explains. 'If you're going to market something it has to be done well or it counts for nothing.”

Finally, Wendy says she'd appreciate the opportunity to share her observations with Tourism Bay of Plenty – because she believes she can help.

And for its part, Tourism BOP says it will happily meet with Wendy.

The organisation told The Weekend Sun it's aware the information the cruise ships use needs improvement for all local ports of call; and its working with Tourism NZ to improve this.