Record Tourist Numbers Visiting Tasmania

17 June 2009

Tasmania is continuing to defy the national trend of a weakening domestic travel environment by posting a third consecutive quarter of positive visitor growth, the Minister for Tourism, Michelle O’Byrne announced today.

Ms O’Byrne said the Tasmanian Visitor Survey (TVS) results for the year ending March 2009 confirmed Tasmania’s position as a leading domestic travel destination, with overall visitation to Tasmania increasing by 7 per cent compared with the year ending March 2008.

“A record 896,800 people visited Tasmania in the year ending March 2009.

“The results show total visitor nights were up 4 per cent to 7.45 million nights and total spending in Tasmania grew by 7 per cent to $1.43 billion,” Ms O’Byrne said.

Growth was strongest in the number of interstate holiday visitors to the State.

“In the year to March 2009, we welcomed 14 per cent more holiday visitors to Tasmania than the previous year.

“This is even more impressive when you consider that the year ending March 2009 did not include the Easter holiday period, unlike the same period the previous year.

“Once again this is fantastic news for Tasmania and our tourism industry which has consistently shown it is in a very strong position to weather the challenges of the global market conditions.”

Ms O’Byrne said the record visitation showed the State Government’s commitment to the tourism sector was paying dividends.

“Through our policies and the hard work of Tourism Tasmania, we have built the sector to a point where more people are coming to Tasmania than ever before.

“The State Government knows how important tourism is to this State, which is why we have ensured tourism marketing funding is quarantined from efficiency dividends required to manage through these challenging financial times.”

Ms O’Byrne said while the global financial crisis was likely to have contributed to a softening in the number of business visitors to the State, the number of convention and conference visitors has increased by an impressive 22 per cent.

“These results show Tasmania is continuing to outperform its State and Territory counterparts and further supports the anecdotal evidence from the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania and tourism operators that it was a bumper start to the year.”

Ms O’Byrne said in contrast to Tasmania’s ongoing positive performance, interstate overnight travel at the national level declined in the year to March 2009 according to the National Visitor Survey (NVS) results released today.

“Nationally, interstate visitor nights fell by 10 per cent, overnight trips declined by 6 per cent, and overnight spend dropped by 10 per cent.”

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.

Detailed information on the Tasmanian Visitor Survey for the quarter ending and year ending March 2009 can be found at http://www.tourismtasmania.com.au/research/latest_statistics/snapshots/

Further information: Rohan Wade (03) 6336 2443 or 0417 051 255