Cheap bali fares lure tourists away from Darwin

CHEAP airfares to Bali have been blamed by tourism industry officials as major reasons for a huge drop in domestic travel to the Territory.

Duck About tour guide Yvonne Island waits patiently for tourists to arrive and to pick up

OVERPRICED accommodation and cheap airfares to Bali have been blamed by tourism industry officials as major reasons for a huge drop in domestic travel to the Territory.

Duck About tour guide Yvonne Island.

The NT News reported yesterday that there were 135,000 fewer overnight visitors to the Territory in 2013 but tour operators were yesterday divided about the impact this has had on their business.

Hotel room prices are often not available to tourists or priced exorbitantly because fly-in fly-out resource workers are taking up the accommodation usually earmarked for holiday-makers.

The NT News’ story generated an influx of commentary online yesterday with many people saying Darwin was too expensive, accommodation was hard to find and tourists were continuing to bypass the city.

DARWIN TOURISM NUMBERS DWINDLE

However Matt O’Reilly, who owns the Darwin Explorer hop-on hop-off bus, said this year was shaping up as far superior to last year.

“We had a great April and an even better May,” he said.

“I think we bottomed out last year and this year it’s certainly picked up again.”

Darwin Harbour Cruises general manager Rachel Beaumont-Smith agreed, saying forward bookings were “fantastic”.

“We have to remember we are coming off the back of a late wet season, but we are looking towards a record-breaking May,” she said. “It is cheaper to go to Bali and Singapore, but not everyone wants to do that. We need to show value and quality in our product.”

Tourism Minister Matt Conlan said the “road to recovery” for the tourism industry would be a long one.

“We only launched our new ‘Do the NT’ brand and major marketing campaign on September 30 last year so we don’t expect to see the full benefits and impact of this campaign until the peak tourism season and later on this year,” he said.

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“However, early indications are good with the results for October to December showing an increase in interstate visitor numbers during what is traditionally a slow period.”

Duck About Tours operator Rob Doble said Darwin had become too expensive, with domestic travellers often getting better value for their dollar by flying to Bali.

“Darwin has so much to offer and has the best environment in the world but it is jolly dear,” he said. “Since Inpex the cost of everything has shot up, including accommodation. You can get from Melbourne to Bali cheaper than Melbourne to Darwin.”

Victorian Kristin Favaloro agreed saying she had hoped to stop over in Darwin for Easter this year however found it cheaper to go direct to Bali from Melbourne.

“It was much cheaper to go direct to Bali rather than to stop over in Darwin,” she said.