Tasmania has nearly tripled the national trend for international visitors and recorded the greatest increase in tourists of any state or territory according to the latest International Visitors Survey.
In the 12-months to September more than 199,000 international travellers visited our island, an increase of 19 per cent compared to the previous year.
We have given the world every reason to come and discover us and it is clear they like what they see, with Tasmania outstripping the national average increase of seven per cent and rising far higher than the closest state, Victoria, with an 11 per cent increase.
It can be no coincidence that we have seen a massive 40 per cent increase in Chinese visitors, with the survey capturing the greater part of the year since the Chinese President’s visit.
Together with the industry we are committed to keeping this trend going. Hosting Savour Tasmania in China for the first time and assisting to secure the China Eastern Airlines code share agreement with Qantas, to make Tasmania one click and one ticket away for Chinese travellers, will drive this.
We are also working to explore emerging markets, like India. While only a small number of Indian travellers ventured to our shores, it was a marked increase from 1,900 to 4,000, and as a result Tourism Tasmania will explore its potential to be added to our list of key international markets into the future.
The survey also revealed that Tasmania and Victoria were the only two states in the country to record an increase in market share of international visitors.
The survey is a great way to round-out a stellar year for Tasmania’s tourism and hospitality industries and is also a testament to the passion and hard-work of our state's operators.
This is just the beginning. The Tasmanian Government is committed to working with the industry to increase the number of visitors to Tasmania to 1.5 million every year by 2020. The international visitor market will play a huge role in achieving this, and these figures show we are well on our way.
For the full survey go to: http://www.tra.gov.au/