Tasmania’s visitor boom continues
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15 Sep 09 (TravMedia.com): Tasmania continues to lead the nation as a popular domestic travel destination, with the State recording its fourth consecutive period of visitor growth.
The Tasmanian Visitor Survey (TVS)* results for the year to June 2009 revealed today that overall visitation to the State had increased by seven per cent compared to the same period last year. Visitors from Tasmania’s two key markets, New South Wales and Victoria, also increased by 30 per cent and seven per cent on the previous year respectively.
The TVS also revealed that visitors to Tasmania were staying longer and spending more, with the total number of visitor nights up ten per cent and the total expenditure up four per cent. Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Tasmania, Ms Felicia Mariani, attributed Tasmania’s sustained growth as a holiday destination to its successful access strategy, cooperative marketing programs and high quality tourism offerings.
“Tasmania continues to grow its appeal as a holiday and leisure destination, with holiday visitors accounting for 48 per cent of all visitors to the State, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year,” Ms Mariani said. “We anticipate that these figures will continue to grow under the current marketing campaign, which showcases the State’s iconic, world-class experiences as part of a three-year communications strategy which will set the foundation for the tourism industry’s continued expansion,” she continued.
“Tourism Tasmania is leading the nation when it comes to finding the right balance between our supply and demand-side activities. Just as we need to sell the message of Tasmania as a world-class destination, we also need to continue to produce and deliver experiences that exceed our visitors’ expectations,” she added.
Despite the continued impact of the Global Financial Crisis, the June 2009 quarter showed signs of a rebounding business travel sector for Tasmania. Visitation for business purposes was up nineteen per cent compared with the same quarter last year, with the conference and convention sector reporting growth of seventeen per cent for the quarter ending June 2009. Convention visitors to the State increased by 33 per cent for the year ending June 2009.
“These results are great news for Tasmania and our tourism industry, which continues to show its resilience to the volatile global economy,” Ms Mariani said. “It also shows Tasmania’s ability to respond to the demands of the dynamic tourism market,” she added.
*The TVS is a destination survey providing a detailed picture of visitors to Tasmania and is conducted through interviews and a self-completion questionnaire of targeted passengers as they depart Tasmanian ports. It has a sample size of around 9,000 interstate visitors per year and is seen as the most robust and reliable data source for interstate visitation to Tasmania. Detailed information on the TVS for the quarter-ending and year-ending June 2009 can be found at www.tourism.tas.gov.au.
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