‘Bumper’ tourism season in Top End but different story in Alice Springs

Top End tourism operators say they’ve had a huge season despite cost-of-living pressures, but it’s a different story in Alice Springs. Read what each region has experienced.

A Top End tourism operator has been inundated with visitors this dry season, welcoming at least 500 people each day to its iconic Territory destination.

However it is a different story for some sectors in Alice Springs, where crime, cost of living and cruise ships have kept people away from the Red Centre.

Nitmiluk Tours river operations manager Trehaan Armstrong said boat cruises through Katherine Gorge had sold out almost every day over the past three months.

“Over the last two years, especially coming out of the pandemic, a lot of people are travelling locally (rather than) doing their big overseas extravagant trips,” he said.

“A lot more people got to come see the Gorge and went home and told all their mates about it.

“I think that probably is a pretty big reason why the tour has got so popular this year.”

Trehaan Armstrong, river operations manager at Nitmiluk Tours, said this season had seen boat cruises booked out day-on-day for months. Picture: Nitmiluk Tours

Mr Armstrong said Nitmiluk Tours had been taking between 500 to 600 people through the gorge on any typical day this Dry, the operator’s peak season.

Cooinda Lodge general manager Jason Cleverley said it had also been a “pumping” dry season for the Kakadu operator.

“While the season is now getting a little quieter we’re still seeing incredible amounts of people out here, about 90 per cent occupancy,” he said.

“We’re seeing predominantly Australian travellers … this is all our local travellers, which we love.

“We’ve still got our grey nomads with their caravans but predominantly our customer base are the ones flying into the Territory and slowly making their way around.”

Litchfield Tourist Park owner Shelly Haitana said the season had not been as busy as it was during Covid years, where Aussies spent more time travelling around Australia as they couldn’t go overseas. Picture: iStock

Across the highway however, it has not been as busy as expected for Litchfield Tourist Park owner Shelly Haitana.

“We’ve had a few honeymoon years because of Covid, but this year has gone back to what we were used to,” she said.

“12 weeks being busy and 40 weeks waiting for the next season to come around again.”

Ms Haitana said international tourists had come back in bigger numbers than anticipated, but expensive airfares and cost of living pressures had led to a quieter season than last year.

Tourism Top End chairman Shaun Pearce said the season had been a “mixed bag”, with some operators “really struggling” and others booked out.

Tourism Top End chairman Shaun Pearce said the dry season had been a “mixed bag” for the tourism industry.

“Last year was never going to be repeated, that was a unicorn year, but when you compare this year to 2019 were around the mark or a little bit under,” he said.

Mr Pearce said operators were concerned about the impact of airport runway works on the return of international travellers and the price of flights.

In Central Australia however, it has been a “tale of two stories” according to the region’s tourism body leader.

Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford said while some sectors including Ghan travellers and tour groups had been tracking well, the numbers of people driving through the region were “well down on pre-Covid numbers”.

“It’s a confluence of issues … we’ve got our grey nomad market going on cruise ships, we’re seeing a lot of Australians going on short trips, we’re not seeing the same numbers of international visitors,” he said.

“We’re unfortunately seeing a decrease in the length of stay in both Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, and we see that directly linked to crime.”

NT Caravan Parks Association chair Brendan Heenan said this winter had been a “poor” season for Alice Springs caravan parks. Picture: Emma Murray

NT Caravan Parks Association chair Brendan Heenan, who owns Wintersun Cabin and Caravan Park in Alice Springs, said the season was down about 50 to 60 per cent on a typical year.

“It’s been a very poor season … one of the reasons is bad publicity, but the other reason is cruise ships, there have been huge discounts trying to get people to come back cruising again,” he said.

Mr Heenan said cost of living pressures had likely caused caravanners to travel intrastate rather than to the Territory, while “very expensive” airfares into Alice Springs had impacted tourism across the board.

“At the moment most people are coming in without ringing up, they just rock up here for one night and then they’re off again.”