COMMENT: State's long-term forecast remains positive

Last Friday night in Canberra we were sipping bubbly and basking in the glow of another extraordinary result for the state at the industry's premier awards for excellence, the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards. Our operators brought home 17 medals from 23 categories, including seven gold, a remarkable result for any state, let alone the nation's smallest.

Port Arthur was named Australia's top major tourist attraction for the second year in a row, while the Australian Wooden Boats Festival finally got the recognition it deserves as an outstanding tourism event, winning the major festivals and events category for the first time.

Two of our very best nature tourism operators, the Maria Island Walk and Roaring 40s Kayaking, won gold in the ecotourism and adventure tourism categories respectively. These are two Tasmanian family run businesses who passionately deliver immersive and world class visitor experiences within our protected areas.

Hobart's MACq01 and ibis Styles Hotels were both named the best hotels in Australia in their class. The biggest cheer of the night from us Tasmanians, however, went to Gary and Loraine Ashdown, who won gold in the hosted accommodation for their Ashdown's of Dover.

Through the most difficult of 12 months following last year's bushfires, the Ashdown's continued to deliver wonderful Tasmanian hospitality that ultimately saw their bed and breakfast named the very best in the country.

In Launnie, Stillwater Seven (new tourism business) and Launceston Airport (specialised tourism services) both won silvers in their category. So close to gold, but also testament to their commitment to Tassie tourism excellence. It was a cracking result and exactly what we needed in these very challenging times. Reminding the visitor market and the rest of the Australian tourism industry that Tasmania is still the hottest destination in the country.

Until now we've been relatively isolated as an industry from the trail of destruction the coronavirus travel ban is leaving across the Australian tourism industry. The relatively small number of Tasmanian operators heavily exposed to the Chinese market are certainly struggling, and are being supported by the state government and all tourism authorities as much as we can.

On the whole, however, the impact of the bushfire season and the coronavirus travel ban has been much less severe on Tasmania, compared to similar scale tourism industries on the mainland. This all made Tuesday's announcement by David Walsh and his team that they had no choice but to cancel June's Dark Mofo such a shock to the industry.

Let's not underestimate just how important Dark Mofo has become to the whole Tasmanian tourism industry. For many of our operators June is now as busy month of trading as the height of summer. The event has transformed perceptions of Tasmania as a winter destination.

While we understand why Dark Mofo has been cancelled for this year, we also know the impact of this decision will be felt hard. Producers across the state, for example, have been stocking up for Winter Feast, and have now lost that trade for the year. Accommodation operators banking of bumper occupancy are now readjusting budgets and rosters. It is reassuring to know the creative juices of Leigh Carmichael and his team are working to come up with some bold ideas to divert the funds committed to this year's Dark Mofo into other events over the winter period. These events might not have the scale and profile of Dark Mofo but hopefully do enough to get Tasmanian's out and about and spending money in our own backyard.

Tourism Tasmania are well resourced and determined to go hard over the coming months on promoting and marketing Tasmania in our largest important interstate markets.

Australians still want to travel and many see regular holidays as a necessity of life. As travel conditions normalise and life goes on we need Tasmania to be front of mind with these consumers.

Tourism Tasmania has a wonderful new brand, apt for the times, "Come Down For Air", and we have confidence in them protecting and ultimately growing our share of a very competitive tourism pie.

The other thing all operators can do through these uncertain times is invest into their own business. Money is tight, so this might not mean expensive refurbishments, but they can use this time to improve their general business and tourism skills.

Explore new long-term market opportunities to grow their business, and improve their marketing and social media skills.

The travel bans and economic uncertainty created by the coronavirus is a market disruption, and will correct. The medium and long-term forecast for travel, and the Tasmanian tourism industry, remain very positive.

The Tasmanian tourism industry's challenge over coming weeks and months as we navigate these very uncertain times, is to lay the foundations to ensure when conditions normalise, we bounce back faster and stronger than other destinations, and even better than we were before.