The arrival of the first cruise ship of the season brought a buzz to Pilot Bay this week, with Mount Maunganui businesses looking ahead to a summer of renewed activity after a difficult year.

Mount Business Association chair Jo Veale joined the early-morning welcome for Celebrity Edge, which arrived at the Port of Tauranga on Tuesday carrying thousands of visitors and crew expected to explore the region before the ship departed that evening.

The cruise season begins with six of the largest vessels scheduled to visit Tauranga in the first three weeks, bringing more than 20,000 people.

For Veale, seeing tour operators back in action and visitors arriving in the sunshine was an encouraging sign for the months ahead.

“This is wonderful. We want to welcome our manuhiri [guests] and show that we’re a great place to be,” she said. “It’s fantastic to see the tour operators here and Tourism Bay of Plenty out in force welcoming the cruise ship passengers.”

The positive mood comes after a challenging year for Mount businesses following the fatal January 22 Mauao landslide, which claimed six lives and impacted the community and local trading.

Veale said it was important to look forward while keeping the victims’ families at the forefront of people’s minds.

“It’s difficult to say it’s positive when we’re speaking about such a tragic event. The way for us to move through and to look to the future is to support each other, but keeping the families of the victims at the forefront of our minds is really key for us.”

The Celebrity Edge arrived in Tauranga on Tuesday, October 13. Photo / Rosalie Liddle Crawford

Despite the challenges, she said the business community had shown resilience, and local support helped retailers get through winter.

“It certainly hasn’t been easy, but most businesses have been able to dig deep over winter, and we’ve had great local support. There was a destination marketing campaign that certainly brought people into the accommodation providers and that works because if they’re staying, they’ve got to eat, they want to shop, they want to have a good time.”

Of about 270 businesses within the association’s area, Veale said she was aware of two closures this year. Several new businesses had opened, while major events were beginning to return to areas affected by the tragedy, she said.

“Last weekend, Ultimate Athlete brought hundreds of people to the town and particularly around the Mount North area.”

Veale said the reopening of the Mount Surf Life Saving Club had been another positive development.

“They’ve asked that people booking for events at the surf club use businesses around Mount North for catering. That’s a great little community initiative from the Mount Surf Life Saving Club.”

Now, with cruise ships returning, warmer weather and a busy summer on the horizon, Veale said the mood on Mainstreet was buoyant.

“We’re certainly looking forward to a super El Niño summer. A nice hot, long, dry summer for us is going to be great for everybody,” Veale said.

“Last year, aside from January 22nd, and the tragedy of the landslide, we had the wettest December we’d had in years. We were heading into that tragedy with a very poor trading December, which made things very hard.

“But we’re the opposite this year. We’re heading into summer, return of the cruise ships, the good weather, the mood is buoyant on the main street, and we’re keeping a very positive vibe.”