Where Tassie is holidaying

THE first green shoots of the tourism industry are appearing, with solid growth in holiday traffic recorded in both the state’s north and south, new data shows.

A new Road Trip Index generated by data from travellers using TripTech apps shows leisure traffic around Hobart and the south (including Port Arthur) has been growing at 4 per cent each week through June and July. A similar rate of growth has been recorded around Launceston and the Tamar over the past four weeks.

The data comes from a suite of 14 TripTech apps produced for car hire companies, accommodation providers and RV hire companies and includes CamperMate, which has more than two million downloads. “Even at this early stage of what will be a long road back to recovery, our launched Independent Road Travel Index is showing a clear and sustainable increase in the number of Australians who are returning to travel and they’re almost exclusively doing so by road,” said TripTech CEO Nick Baker.

“The road trip is not just back in vogue, but it could be here to stay and become entrenched as the primary and most popular means of tourist and leisure travel within and across Australia.

Caravan Industry Association CEO Stuart Lamont said there had been a “resurgence of activity towards caravanning and camping road trips” in Tasmania since mid-May, with increases in park occupancy, as well as more inquiries at dealerships.

Cabins had 55 per cent occupancy during the week starting July 6, while powered sites were at 25 per cent occupancy.

Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway told News Corp that of all the states, Tasmania was “the most reliant state on interstate travel”.

“These figures will move once we see some interstate travellers come back into the market,” he said.

Although talk had raced ahead to discussion of transTasman bubbles, Mr Westaway said intrastate and some interstate travel was all that was available right now.

“It’s human nature to be optimistic, but ... we need to be a bit more realistic about where things are at,” he said.