Media Releases

Tasmania is continuing to defy the national trend of a weakening domestic travel environment with new statistics revealing a third consecutive quarter of increasing visitor numbers and Tasmania reaching a historic milestone of one million visitors in a single year. The Tasmanian Visitor Survey (TVS) results for the year ending March 2009 confirmed Tasmania’s position as a leading domestic travel destination, with overall visitation to the state increasing by 7 per cent compared with the previous year. The results also revealed that total visitor nights were up 4 percent to 7.45 million nights and total spending grew by 7 percent.

"In the year to March 2009, we welcomed 14 percent more holiday visitors to Tasmania than the previous year. Achieving one million visitors in a single year is extremely positive news for tourism in Tasmania. It also marks the achievement of a major goal set out in Tourism 21 – the joint Tasmanian Government and tourism industry three-year business plan” Felicia Mariani, CEO for Tourism Tasmania said.

"Once again this is fantastic news for Tasmania and our tourism industry which has consistently shown it is in a very strong position to weather the challenges of the global market conditions. Achieving one million visitors for the first time is a credit to our industry for delivering a product that more and more people want to experience for themselves,” Ms Mariani added.

These latest results also reveal that Tasmania is continuing to outperform its State and Territory counterparts. In contrast to the state’s ongoing positive performance, the National Visitors Survey (NVS) results noted that interstate overnight travel at the national level declined in the year to March 2009.

Ms Mariani said Tasmania was close to reaching the second major milestone of the Tourism 21 business plan, $2.2 billion of income from visitors and Tasmanians travelling within their own state in a 12-month period.

The collective research data reports that in the year to March 2009, a total of $2.158 billion was spent by visitors to the state and Tasmanians holidaying at home.

For more information on the Tasmanian Visitors Survey for the quarter ending and year ending March 2009, please visit www.tourismtasmania.com.au.

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Sonia Rendigs
Email: sonia@mediamoguls.com.au
Phone: 03 9836 2167

For more information, visit www.discovertasmania.com