Southerly blockbuster

Capital’s crown as record numbers roll in

FOR the first time, more than a million people have visited southern Tasmania in a year. Tasmanian Visitor Survey figures show that of the 1.2 million visitors to the state during the past year, a record 1.004 million travelled to the South. The latest National Visitor Survey figures show Tasmania enjoyed the largest growth in tourism spending of any state over the past three years — $2.3 billion.

News of southern popularity was no surprise to Melbourne visitors Alan and Barbara Eckstein, pictured.

“Tasmania is being talked about a lot more as a must-see destination. It’s just a break away type of location, especially from Melbourne,” they said.

Destination Southern Tasmania chief executive Melinda Anderson says the next lot of figures will be even better with a record-breaking Dark Mofo just finishing this year.

RECORD numbers of tourists are visiting the state and they are making Hobart a must-see destination.

New figures from the Tasmanian Visitor Survey show that more than one million people included the south of the state in their itineraries over the past year.

Tasmania experienced a 7 per cent increase in the number of visitors over a 12-month period to March this year — to a whopping 1.26 million people.

And out of that new record figure, 1.004 million travelled to the south of the state over the period — the first time in history the region had cracked the magic million mark.

Sampling the delights of Hobart yesterday were Melburnians Alan and Barbara Eckstein.

While he has travelled to Hobart plenty of times in the past for business, this weekend was the first time Mr Eckstein stayed longer. And he intends to do it a lot more in the future.

“Absolutely we are going to do it again. We will definitely be back,” Mr Eckstein said.

Premier and Tourism Minister Will Hodgman said it was another show of strength for the key sector in the state.

It comes on the back of National Visitor Survey figures released last week that showed Tasmania enjoyed the largest growth in tourism spending of any Australian state over the past three years.

In the year ending March 2017, the number of domestic overnight trips increased 7 per cent to reach a record 2.5 million and visitors from around Australia and overseas spent $2.3 billion — an increase of 30 per cent on the previous year.

“They are staying longer, spending more and getting right out into regional Tasmania and seeing what Tasmania has to offer,” said Mr Hodgman.

Destination Southern Tasmania chief executive Melinda Anderson said that with a record-breaking Dark Mofo just finishing this year — with more than 427,000 attendances including repeat visits — the next lot of figures could be even better.

“We know how popular Tasmania is at the moment, having just experienced the record numbers for Dark Mofo ... which won’t show up until next quarter’s figures,” she said.

“Tasmania, Hobart and southern Tasmania will hopefully see continued growth in our visitor markets across the board . . . next cruise season we are expecting 64 ships, up from 48 this year.”

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chair Daniel Leesong said it was important that the state continued to build on the momentum that Mona and other operators were building.

“It’s huge [the Mona effect], Mona has fundamentally been a key driver of tourism in the state and we need to make sure that we support Mona in their ongoing development,” Mr Leesong said.

As well as a 5 per cent increase in visitors to the south of the state, the East Coast received a 12 per cent boost, northern Tasmania 11 per cent and the Cradle Coast 7 per cent. Total visitor spending grew by 11 per cent to a new record of $2.23 billion, which Mr Hodgman said was well ahead of the rate required to meet the T21 goal of $2.47 billion a year by 2020.