Tasmania Tops One Million Visitors for the First Time

24 June 2009

The Minister for Tourism, Michelle O’Byrne, today announced that for the first time ever, Tasmania has reached the historic milestone of one million visitors in a single year.

Ms O’Byrne, announced the landmark achievement today following the release of visitor figures for the 2008/09 cruise ship season.

“Achieving one million visitors in a year is extremely positive news for tourism in Tasmania.

“It also marks the achievement of a major goal set out in Tourism 21 – the joint Tasmanian Government and tourism industry three-year business plan,” Ms O’Byrne said.

“This is a remarkable achievement for our State, and one that underlines the commitment the State Government has shown to working hard to grow visitation and supporting the tourism industry.”

“Tasmanians know what a wonderful place our State is, and now more people than ever before are coming here to experience Tasmania and everything it offers as a tourist destination.

“Achieving one million visitors for the first time is a credit to our tourism industry and Tourism Tasmania for delivering a product that more and more people want to experience for themselves.”

“This achievement is made even more remarkable given that in the 1990s, under a Liberal Government, visitation was only about 500,000 and Tasmania was failing to capitalise on its tourism potential.”

Ms O’Byrne said the milestone of one million visitors follows last week’s announcement that Tasmania had posted a third consecutive quarter of visitation growth.

“The March 2009 results of the Tasmanian Visitor Survey showed Tasmania was continuing to defy the national trend of a deteriorating domestic travel climate.

“According to the TVS, visitor numbers to Tasmania increased by seven per cent to 896,800 in the 12 months to March 2009.

“Add to this the 2008/09 cruise season figures and the visits from navy ships and the total visitation for the year is just more than one million people.

From November 2008 to March 2009 Tasmania welcomed 102,400 cruise ship visitors to the State – an increase of 27 per cent on the previous season. Additionally, there were 4,300 navy ship visitors in the year to March 2009.

Ms O’Byrne said Tasmania’s cruise ship market has experienced striking growth over the past decade.

“The numbers of cruise ship visitors to our State has increased 600 per cent from the 16,400 people that visited on cruises ships in 1997/98.

“Cruise ship visitors now represent approximately 11 per cent of all visitors to Tasmania.

“During the 2008/09 season we welcomed 66 separate cruise ship visits by 21 different vessels; four more vessels and 16 more visits than the 2007/08 cruise ship season.

Importantly, cruise ship visitors are also spending more while they are here. During the 2008/09 season an estimated $11.3 million was spent by cruise ship visitors in the State, which represents a 27 per cent or $2.4 million increase on the 2007/08 season.

Ms O’Byrne said Tasmania was also close to reaching the second major milestone of Tourism 21, $2.2 billion dollars of income from visitors and Tasmanians travelling in their own state in a 12-month period.

“The collective research data reports that in the year to March 2009, a total of $2.158 billion was spent by visitors to the State and Tasmanians holidaying at home.”

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