A family wanders around Penny Royal Adventures, far from the flat expanses of their home state of Western Australia.
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David Moss, travelling with his wife and new son Mason, is impressed with the attraction that re-opened in March.
His three-week trip around the state is his first experience of the island.
“Tasmania has been the biggest surprise to me.”
Its food and wildlife, and accessibility for parents with infants or people using wheelchairs, had made the trip successful for his family.
“I’ve been blown away by the scenery,” he said.
Penny Royal Adventures started its peak season in December and expected it to extend to Easter.
The tourism upswing heralded in Tasmania has reached the Launceston business, general manager Eamonn Seddon said.
“We’re seeing a lot of people coming showing their relatives what we have here in Launceston.”
Passengers flying between Launceston and Melbourne increased 5.9 per cent to 918,500 in the year to September, aviation statistics show. Flights taking the route grew 4.5 per cent from 690 in September last year to 721 in the same month during 2016.
Outside Launceston, adventure tourism is taking off in northern Tasmania as mountain biking at Blue Derby has breathed new life into the region and walking tracks around the state continue to attract visitors.
Tasmanian Walking Company general manager Heath Garratt said there was an opening in the state to bring more locals into tourism as guides.
“It just has so much more meaning when you’re actually from here,” he said.
The company, which has walks at Cradle Mountain, Bay of Fires and Wineglass Bay, is looking to expand without spoiling what it offered, he said.
“We’ve got these big tracts of land that are untouched and they’re pretty exciting areas,” he said.
Tasmania’s tourism boom continued into 2016, as 1.19 million visitors arrived in the state in the year to September. The state’s tourism strategy aims to reach 1.5 million by the year 2020.
A decision by a subsidiary of Singaporean company Global Premium Hotels Limited to invest in Launceston by entering a sale and purchase agreement worth $7.2 million for the Clarion Hotel City Park Grand was an endorsement of tourism’s future in Launceston, Tasmania’s Co-ordinator General John Perry said.
However like others, he thinks there is more the city could do to capitalise on the state’s visitor boom.
“It’s already getting a significant uptick from tourism,” he said.
Tasmania’s push for higher end tourism presented an opportunity for Launceston, he said.
“If you’re looking at newer accommodation that’s coming onstream in Hobart and the others that are already there in other parts of the state, Launceston could offer more accommodation that’s at the higher end of the market.”
If you’re looking at newer accommodation that’s coming onstream in Hobart and the others that are already there in other parts of the state, Launceston could offer more accommodation that’s at the higher end of the market.
- John Perry
Stars in the industry like Saffire and Pumphouse Point played an important role as aspirational products, he said.
“Whether or not [a tourist stays] in these properties or not, they create a focus.
“Destinations want these properties as they create excitement about the place.”
Recently, three conferences were held in Launceston in the space of two weeks, bringing visitors in from interstate.
“They were just amazed at the quality that was here for a relatively small city,” Mr Perry said.
“It compares well with other places in Australia that are much bigger.”
Tourists are one ingredient in making Launceston a vibrant city attractive to investors, he said. A CBD bustling with locals, students and tourists could lead to more investment and spending, Mr Perry said.
While Tasmania’s tourism marketing campaign has been sophisticated and well-coordinated, the state’s north has to be clear on why people were visiting the region, Property Council of Australia Tasmanian executive director Brian Wightman says.
Cataract Gorge was the reason many tourists visited northern Tasmania, he said.
“We don’t need to be looking for another jewel in the crown.”
A plan was needed for the attraction, which could be turned into a precinct, he said.
Launceston City Council has developed a green paper and a white paper for the ‘Re-Imagining the Gorge Project’. The council, the state government and Tourism Northern Tasmania wanted to develop a vision for the Cataract Gorge Reserve and the Trevallyn Nature Recreation Area through the project, general manager Robert Dobrzynski said.
Mr Wightman said he had met Victorians who fished in Tasmania’s lakes over those in their own state.
“We should look to keep attracting people to these opportunities and make Launceston Airport the gateway to these activities.”
As a former school principal at Winneleah, he has seen the fortunes of the north-east change. Derby is revitalised after its tracks gained a reputation as a world-class mountain biking experience.
They will host a stage of the Enduro World Series mountain bike race, something Mr Wightman wouldn’t have believed during his time in the area.