Tasmania offers breath of fresh air to Asian travellers
Tourism Tasmania is aiming to attract an increasing number of Asian visitors with the lure of clean air and fresh food.
Speaking to Travel Daily on Thursday (25 April 2013), ahead of the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) in Sydney, John Fitzgerald, CEO of Tourism Tasmania, said the island state was seeing a rise in interest from Asian travellers, mainly due to the island’s natural resources.
“We’re already seeing some strong growth from Asia,” Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview. “Hong Kong and mainland China are our biggest markets in the region, with 12,000 and 11,000 visitors respectively, but we’re seeing growth from other markets too, including Singapore and Malaysia.”
Fitzgerald said the growth was partially down to greater accessibility, with a greater range of flight connections and better scheduling making Tasmania a “viable option” for Asian visitors. But the main pull factors for Asians travelling to the island, according to Fitzgerald, are its natural qualities.
“We’re promoting the concept of Tasmania being an ‘accessible wilderness’ for Asian visitors. It’s about nature and wildlife, fresh food and the connection to food producers. We also have the cleanest air in the world, on the Cradle Coast in northwest Tasmania,” he added.
Tourism Tasmania is attending ATE with 10 tourism operators from the state, while others will be represented on the Tourism Australia stand. But the tourist board will ramp up its promotional efforts next month with its first ever mission to Asia. From 21-30 May 2013, Tourism Tasmania, along with six local tourism operators, will conduct a five-city roadshow in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Fitzgerald said the roadshow was an “exploratory, education-focused” project, aimed at educating the region’s travel trade about the Tasmania’s natural and food-based tourism products. Following the mission, Fitzgerald said Tourism Tasmania would commence a “concerted programme” of fam trips for both Asian travel trade and media, and that it is in the process of creating a Tasmania specialist programme, incentivising agents to sell the state.
“We have seen 40% growth [in Asian arrivals] in the last five years, and stronger year-on-year growth every year. There is a little way to go [before Asia becomes our biggest source of visitors] but we want to support the industry to be ready for this,” Fitzgerald concluded.
Tasmania received a total of 904,800 visitors in 2012, up 5% compared to the previous year, while tourist receipts climbed 2% to AU$1.4 billion (US$1.5bn).