Read Mr Fitzgerald’s Talking Point on
John Fitzgerald wants to encourage travellers to Tassie to stay longer
ON a sparkling summer day, there is no better place to be than in Tasmania. It is the busiest time of year for our island with kids on holidays, friends and family visiting and travellers enjoying our long days and fantastic events.
There is a buzz as people visit our attractions, fill restaurants and cafes, support Tasmanian producers and enjoy our hospitality. This has led some to wonder whether we are being loved to death or that tourism is changing our way of life? These community conversations are important, and we are having them now as part of the development of our new 10-year 2030 tourism strategy, but it’s necessary to consider the facts.
Tourism is one of the state’s leading sectors, supporting about 42,800 jobs and contributing $3.2 billion. We welcomed 1.32 million visitors during the year ending September 2019. During peak times, for some people it can seem like too many are in one place at one time. For comparison, Noosa attracts over two million visitors annually and is a fraction of our size. But by encouraging more regional dispersal and with co-ordinated planning, the flow of visitors can be managed.
Tasmania’s current approach to marketing our state is not to keep ramping up visitor numbers, targeting mass tourism over value.
Tourism Tasmania is strategic about the visitors we target and we base our program on in-depth research and insights about our customers to understand who they are and how they align to our brand.
Tasmania is not a destination that seeks nor suits mass tourism and the state’s destination marketing strategy is not aimed at attracting large numbers of tourists. We target a discrete subsection of the travelling leisure market. These are visitors we know are more likely to travel to regions and spend their dollars in our communities. As an island state we have additional challenges in accessing our regions and need to stand out against other destinations that are also competing for holiday-makers and their expenditure. We are not a stopover destination nor an easy or cheap place to get to.
Our visitors need to understand us, plan travel, find appropriate accommodation and experiences and choose a Tasmanian holiday over other, often cheaper options. We need to work harder than others to attract visitors who will fall in love with what our island offers.
Tourism Tasmania’s marketing program targets segments of the travelling public that seek enrichment from their holidays and are more inclined to treasure our state, stay longer, travel farther and spend more in communities across the state. Tasmania’s new tourism brand, Come Down for Air, launched late last year is based very heavily on this rationale.
As demand for travel rises, flights and accommodation are required to meet demand. This has been impacted by supply constraints in air capacity and accommodation with Tasmania becoming a more expensive destination to travel to. We expect this to ease as more hotels and accommodation become available in the next few years.
The data suggests our strategy to focus on attracting visitors prepared to spend time and money here is working.
The International Visitor Survey released today, shows that despite a 2 per cent drop in international visitors, the holiday spend increased over the same period by 12 per cent.
Other positive signs include increases in visitors from the US (up 9 per cent), Hong Kong (up 21 per cent) and the United Kingdom (up 7 per cent).
John Fitzgerald is Tourism Tasmania chief executive, member of the Premier’s Visitor Economy Advisory Council and T21 Steering Committee chairman.