Spreading the benefit of Tasmania’s growing tourism industry, increasing visitor expenditure and the length of stay is the target of a re-elected Liberal Government.
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In 2014 the government announced a target of 1.5 million visitors to the state by 2020.
The latest Tasmanian Visitor Survey showed the government was on track to achieve the target – with 1.26 million visitors in the year prior to March 2017.
Clutching a copy of the Liberal Government’s re-election manifesto, Liberal Bass MHA Sarah Courtney spoke about the government’s targets.
She said the government aimed to grow the average per person expenditure by 50 per cent to $2892 – bringing total visitor spending to $4.33 billion each year.
The government also aims to increase the number of visitors staying overnight in regional areas to 70 per cent.
Tourism Northern Tasmania chairman James McKee supported the plan to increase visitor dispersion and expenditure.
“The more we can give them a taste of what’s on offer across Tasmania the more likely we are to see them back not just second times, but third and fourth times,” he said.
Mr McKee said spreading out tourists would minimise the impact on natural environments as more people visit.
“By focussing the efforts on actually moving people around and focusing on how they spend more time to enjoy it, rather than just increasing numbers, we think helps potentially mitigate some of that pressure,” he said.
Mr McKee cited more infrastructure as key to ensuring visitors enjoyed their experiences and cited the Cradle Mountain project as one that would benefit Tasmania.
