Small, with big benefits

CONCERNS over cruise passenger numbers in Tasmania have been overstated, so it’s important to put the facts into perspective when planning for the future of the tourism sector ( Mercury, June 10). The state’s cruise visitor numbers represent a small but important fraction of total tourism and currently make up about 7 per cent of overall visitation. Tasmania recorded about 212,638 cruise passenger visit days in 2017-2018 from about 90,000 actual cruise visitors, while overall visitor numbers that year totalled 1.3 million.

Although the numbers are relatively small, the economic benefits from cruise visitors are very significant. Total direct cruise passenger expenditure in Tasmania was $30.5 million in 2017-2018, which