and his media pulling power was something to behold. The other pleasing piece of news out of the latest figures was the increase in our visitor’s length of stay while they were in Tassie. In 2015-16 our visitors stayed a total of 10.2 million nights in Tasmania, which was five per cent more nights than the previous year. The increased length of stay leads to more opportunities for visitors to get out and about to explore our regions, and the figures show this was in fact the case, with numbers to the north, east and Cradle Coast regions all growing at a greater rate than overall visitor numbers. However, the muted rate of growth in overall visitor numbers this year, when combined with other statistics, shows that we are experiencing growing pains in some areas as we progress towards the industry and government’s visitor economy goals for 2020. With the majority of available airline seats being filled and the Spirits of Tasmania continuing to attract more and more passengers on their extra services, we are seeing limited spare capacity being available to cater for future growth in international and domestic visitor numbers. To compound this situation, recent figures from THA members showed record occupancy rates throughout the state during the 2015-16 financial year. I know many new hotels and rooms are being planned or under construction in Hobart right now. While this is reassuring, the time it will take to get all the new hotels built and trading means it is unlikely that we will see high rates of growth in overall visitor numbers to Tasmania in the short term. The good news is that the future leisure demand appears strong and positive, with our market surveys showing Tasmania continues to have very high appeal, is being recommended by the majority of our visitors, and the volume of people saying they are considering a trip to Tasmania for leisure remains stable.
Research also shows that the number of visitors who said they were extremely satisfied with their visit to Tasmania has risen, and despite the challenge of finding sufficient hotel rooms for their customers, our travel trade partners are telling us that they are very positive about forward bookings for Tasmania this season. Our latest spring campaign (mentioned last edition) has wrapped up. A screen strategy involving television, digital and out of home advertising was developed for the spring campaign and while we are awaiting official results from the performance of the campaign, I can report that consumers have responded well to this strategy. Initial results show the campaign microsite received a 36 per cent increase in unique visits over the previous spring and video content has been consumed in record numbers. So while it is a very positive time right now for our visitor economy, and we will continue to pursue further visitor growth over the coming year, the need for more air capacity and accommodation in Tasmania, and especially in Hobart, will have a major bearing on the rate of that growth. Lastly, I would like to mention that Guy Taylor, our Executive Director of Marketing, has taken up a new role with the Department of Premier and Cabinet to lead the Tasmanian Brand Project. The project which received a $650,000 injection from the last state budget, aims to develop a comprehensive approach to marketing Tasmania as a place to visit, work, live, invest and buy local goods and services. I would like to thank Guy for his contribution to Tourism Tasmania over the last two years, bringing in new ideas and thinking. It’s great to see Guy’s background and brand expertise being recognised and I wish him every success in leading this project.
October 2016
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