Positive vibe for future of industry

TASMANIAN tourism operators continue to have a positive outlook for their industry, for the next year and for the next five years.

The Tourism Industry Council Tasmania yesterday released its latest Tasmanian Tourism Industry Business Sentiment Survey, which asked 187 operators from across the state about their autumn and winter business and their expectations for the spring and summer period.

Of the respondents, 74 per cent said they had a positive outlook for the industry over the next year and 80 per cent said they had a positive outlook for the industry over the next five years.

Just 6 per cent said they had a negative outlook for the next year, and 3 per cent said they had a negative outlook for the next five years.

The Tasmanian tourism industry business confidence index for October this year was 99.5 points. The highest score is 100 points and scores above 50 indicate a positive outlook.

“This continues a sustained period of very high industry confidence and positivity over the past three years, and represents a dramatic turnaround in the Tasmanian tourism industry’s outlook from when this survey first commenced in 2011,” the survey report says.

The performance of the state’s tourism businesses during the autumn and winter period was mixed.

Of the respondents, 42 per cent reported a better autumn and winter period than they experienced last year, while 32 per cent reported business was down compared with the same period last year.

The National Visitor Survey released earlier this year showed Tasmania experienced the largest growth in tourism spending of any Australian state in the three years to March.