Government talking to Bonza, Rex and Jetstar on Alice Springs flights

On the back of dwindling tourism numbers, the NT’s tourism minister says the government is actively lobbying airlines to boost flights to Central Australia. See who is in their sights.

The government is lobbying airlines and maintaining a packed event season will bring tourists to Central Australia, following concern from the tourism industry about a significant downturn in visitors.

It comes as Central Australian tourism numbers are down about 30 per cent on previous years, with some operators losing up to $100,000 in booking cancellations.

Tourism Minister Nicole Manison said the government is lobbying airline industries hard to boost flights to Central Australia.

“We lobby Qantas hard, we lobby Virgin Airlines hard, we have been talking to the other operators in market such as Rex, Bonza and we keep talking to Jetstar too,” she said.

Tourism Minister Nicole Manison said the government had been “marketing hard” to tell the stories of Central Australian tourism and would respond further if it needed to do more.

“We are seeing these major airlines are focused on the east coast markets.

“We are trying to do what we can to attract airlines to the Northern Territory.”

The comments follow Qantas axing seats to Alice Springs and Yulara, with budget airline Bonza stating it saw potential in Northern Territory destinations.

Ms Manison said the government would continue working with tourism operators and Tourism Central Australia to listen to operators’ concerns.

She listed several events in the pipeline which she said would attract tourists to the region.

“We’ve got some fantastic new products,” she said.

“For example in May we’ve got a fantastic new drone experience launched in Yulara which will be first class.

Ms Manison said events like the Finke Desert Race would bring tourists to Central Australia.

“We’ve just had Kings Canyon Bruce Munro exhibition open up, we’ve just come off the back off a wonderful strong Parrtjima, we’ve got of course the Finke Desert Race coming up at the end of the year.

“We are marketing hard to tell great stories about Central Australian tourism and we will respond if we need to do more.”

On Wednesday, the government released it’s new one million dollar funding pool for the Aboriginal tourism sector.

The grant will see Aboriginal owned businesses or organisations that have a goal to develop or enhance Aboriginal cultural tourism experiences be able to access grants between $30,000 and $100,000.

Ms Manison said the government was backing the tourism industry with the grants.

“The vision of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Tourism Strategy is for the Territory to be the undeniable Australian leader in the Aboriginal tourism sector by 2030,” she said.