Tourism plan to share the love around

THE State Government has unveiled a new plan to ease tourism pressure on popular areas of the state.

Premier and Tourism Minister Will Hodgman told the 2018 Tasmanian Tourism Conference that a new Yield and Dispersal Action Plan would protect parts of the state that were experiencing unprecedented growth.

“It would aim to divert visitors into areas less travelled,” he said.

“We are especially conscious of the need to protect what brings so many people here in the first place.”

Mr Hodgman said the charter of the new policy would be to spread the message to “our tourism partners right across the state” .

“It will be a new sharpened focus of T21 [Tasmanian Visitor Economy Strategy] and it will target a particular type of traveller,” he said.

“It will help us plan the infrastructure we need to support the experience for our new visitors and protect those parts of the state that are experiencing unprecedented growth and to divert our visitors into areas less travelled.

“The T21 steering committee, led by John Fitzgerald, has already started work on the plan.

“Not only will it disperse the benefits of our visitor economy but also relieve pressure points to manage the impacts of increased visitation to special parts of our state.”

Mr Hodgman said it was important to get the balance right. He said the tourism strategy would develop new events, improved access and iconic drive journeys to take visitors off the beaten track into every corner of the state.

He acknowledged that there were also challenges for the industry in recruiting skilled people.

“Most importantly we need to preserve what is special about Tasmania, our natural areas and built heritage are unique and they are bringing people to Tasmania so we need to make sure the right protections are in place,” he said.