Two New Zealand women have tapped into the the country’s tourist trade to create a burgeoning online business.

Wendy London from Hawera and Deborah DeNard of Wellington are set to launch CruiseBubble.com, New Zealand’s first online guide specifically for visiting cruise passengers, in October.

Currently, the two women are accepting registrations from businesses that want to be featured on the site.

“Our target is 1500 for this season and anything above that is really cool,” London said.

The idea was born in 2005 out of Tourism New Zealand’s desire to use the internet more to promote the island nation.

“Tourism New Zealand released the 2005-2015 strategy and one of the key issues there was to ensure tourism businesses could utilise broadband,” London said.

CruiseBubble.com does just that, telling cruise passengers where to shop, what attractions to visit and who to call for anything they might need, all in one handy internet location.

In 2012, 130 cruise ships visited New Zealand with 755 port calls and a total of 209,000 visitors – compared to 17,000 in 1996. Contribution to GDP was $410m with 5633 jobs created.

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