Motion - Tourism Tasmania Annual Report 2023-24, consideration & noting

Tuesday 27 May 2025

[2.58 p.m.]

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Mr President, I thank the member for McIntyre for bringing forward the motion. I will make a few comments on the Tourism Tasmania annual report.

We know how integral tourism is to our state, not just economically, but for Tasmania's reputation as a pristine, unique environment unlike anywhere else in the world. We boast heritage architecture, archaeological significance of the presence of human beings in the state for tens of thousands of years, and ecology and climate that people travel from all over the world to see. Truly, we are so fortunate to be able to live and work in such a beautiful, unique place replete with beauty, that is truly ours and truly Tasmanian.

Therefore, making sure that our tourism sector is receiving the best support and flourishing as best as possible is vital. We want to make sure that people know that Tasmania is open to tourists and that we welcome them with open arms. We want people to have the Tasmanian experience and to leave our island state a little richer for the experience. Of course, with this annual report, we are looking back in time somewhat. In 2023, our tourism sector and our state were still in the midst of the effects of COVID. Of course, COVID has not entirely gone away and we live with it somewhat. We have adapted to it and continue to take it seriously, as it affects tourism, our communities and the businesses and services that support our visitor economy.

The Tourism Tasmania annual report for 2023‑24 notes that the Tasmanian 2030 Visitor Economy Strategy was released in August 2023 and put in place a three‑year action plan for implementation. Now in 2025, we are certainly expecting to see some of these plans come to fruition, but for now I will just focus on the annual report itself. The visitor economy strategy mandates collaboration between the government and the tourism and hospitality industry, to ensure that our state's tourism sector and experience has room to grow, is supported, and is done in a manner which is sustainable and has a positive effect on Tasmania's culture, environment and way of life.

Tourism Tasmania led the implementation of the plan with key partners, including the Premier's Visitor Economy Advisory Council. This council is comprised of representatives from the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania, Tourism Tasmania, the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, the Department of State Growth, the Tasmanian Heritage Council and Brand Tasmania. Each of these stakeholders has an important part to play in boosting and supporting the Tasmanian visitor economy.

One of the initiatives that the annual report highlights is the development of a business case testing the viability of enabling visitors to opt in to a net-zero visit to Tasmania, prioritising local carbon offsets. The report states:

The business case was informed by consumer qualitative and quantitative market research, which found that consumers question the credibility of carbon offsets and have a high degree of scepticism towards carbon calculators, but that Tasmania's net zero emissions and renewable energy credentials are a unique proposition for Tasmania in the travel market.

Clearly, this presents a unique opportunity for our state to market itself, promote its own credentials as an ecologically focused place to visit, and to ensure that growth in the visitor economy is managed sustainably. I look forward to the conclusions of this business case and how it fits in with the overall 2030 Visitor Economy Strategy.

Another important initiative that the annual report highlights is the improvement of accessible tourism in Tasmania. Providing meaningful, actual changes to help people of all abilities to enjoy, experience and visit Tasmania is an extremely important step forward to ensuring that people are included, and know that when they come to Tasmania, they will be welcomed and accommodated.

The annual report notes that 50 audio guides have been produced to assist visually impaired visitors with planning and enjoying the Tasmanian holiday. These audio guides highlight different visitor experiences, and include information about wheelchair access, assistance dogs, braille and other onsite accessibility features.

Very importantly, the annual report tracks the visitor economy through the Tasmanian Visitor Survey, which in 2023‑24 celebrated its first 12 months of being a 100 per cent online experience for visitors. Not only does this expand and ease accessibility for the survey respondents, it is estimated to save more than 80,000 pages annually and reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 1.41 tonnes per year.

In the year ending June 2024, 1,301,400 visitors came to Tasmania, an increase of 1.7 per cent from the year before; 1,036,900 of these visitors came for leisure. An amount of $3.48 million was spent, an average of $2674 per visitor. I would encourage everyone to take a look at the statistics in the annual report on page 15 as they are very enlightening. As the report notes:

Although average spend per visitor was up 41 per cent on 2019, it still reduced to $2674. This is an 11 per cent drop from the year ending June 2023, bringing total expenditure for the year down. This reduction was a consequence of travellers spending their accumulated savings during post‑pandemic trips in 2022‑23 following pent up demand for travel.

The report also notes that international visitation had almost fully recovered to pre‑COVID levels in the year ending March 2024, with visitors from the United States of America and Germany being standouts. It notes that visitors from other markets are slower to recover, including those from China.

Marketing is a significant area of activity for our tourism sector, and we have all seen many of the advertising initiatives which highlight Tasmania's charm and promote it as an outstanding place to visit. The 'Come Down for Air' campaign seems to be one of the most highly promoted advertising campaigns for Tasmania's visitor economy in recent years. The report notes that this campaign showcased Tasmania to an estimated 15.3 million people aged 25-plus across Australia. It reached 5.3 million people on Meta and 1.5 million on TikTok. This is in addition to more traditional forms of advertising, such as through partnerships with news outlets and advertising in papers and on television.

Invariably, people's interaction with Tasmania as a brand will typically start with a search online. I went to Google and typed in 'Tasmania', and the first thing that came up was the Tourism Tasmania website. What it shows people is therefore extremely important. To this end, I note that the annual report states that significant improvements were made to the Discover Tasmania, Tourism Tasmania website, including updates to the 'Trip Planner' feature, new utility tools and refinements to account creation and use, and upgraded search and navigation capabilities to help people see more content and connect people with what they are searching for. Clearly their search engine optimisation is working well and this has helped people connect with services in Tasmania. The Discover Tasmania website generated more than 305,000 leads to operators, a metric which is measured by the number of times users have clicked on operator contact details on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse listing.

The development of the Discover Tasmania app has further enabled visitors to Tasmania to get the information they need quite literally in the palm of their hands very quickly. Moreover, partnerships Tourism Tasmania has fostered with our airports and with Events Tasmania and related industries has helped to promote the download and the use of this app while visiting the state. The app was downloaded 63,041 times during the year, with 105,000 leads to operators.

As many are aware, I am very enthusiastic about Tasmanian boards having Tasmanian board members. While Tourism Tasmania is a statutory authority, it is still a skills‑based board, appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Minister for Tourism. I note that we have some excellent skills on the Tourism Tasmania board and that we have representation for Tasmania, including from the north and north‑western regions.

The Tasmanian tourism sector is a vital pillar of our economy, our pride and our identity as Australia's island state. People visit us from all around the world because they know they can experience things here that they cannot anywhere else. This just does not happen on its own. It takes a lot of people working very hard to ensure that we are being best promoted and that we are doing that with care, sensitivity and sustainability. Tourism Tasmania spearheads this and is supported by many businesses, organisations, individuals, employees and stakeholders who work in the tourism sector or in sectors adjacent to it. It takes everyone to make this work and reading through the 2023‑24 annual report, there is quite a lot to be enthusiastic about.

Having just returned from Western Australia at the weekend, at the airport, I was talking to a lady and her husband who were coming back from Perth, Western Australia. They had visited here in the past and were in Tasmania to actually find a home. Sad to say they had been to Launceston and did not consider it was where they wanted to live. They were actually looking for the Huon Valley. It was great to see the people -

Ms Forrest - They were a bit lost then.

Ms ARMITAGE - A little lost. I did try to convince them that Launceston was probably a better option for them. They did say that they were going to the Huon Valley to see if they could find somewhere they could purchase to live.

That is part of the overall experience of coming to Tasmania. Many people visit and really want to come back and live here. I think that was really important and something that I took away from the discussion with them.

I thank the honourable member for bringing this forward and I note the report.