EDITORIAL: Why NT tourism and hospo have 133,000 reasons to look forward

AFTER a brutal 2020, the tourism industry has 133,000 reasons to smile, and hopefully many hundreds of thousands more in coming months and years.

TERRITORIANS have kept the coronavirus at bay, and now the rest of the country is choosing us to holiday.

Operators from the outback to the Waterfront Beach have undoubtedly had a tough 2020, as almost every industry has.

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Even mining suffered an 11 per cent drop in production this financial year over 2018-19.

But lockdowns and a ban on international arrivals have been especially painful for tourism-reliant industries, especially as uncertainty about the trajectory of the coronavirus dominated the news cycle in the early days of the pandemic.

Even in July, as Victoria recorded over 700 cases of COVID-19 on some individual days, few could’ve predicted that the Territory would be opening itself up to parts of that state in early November.

Uluru is a global drawcard for the Territory. Picture: File.

But now, as we see from statistics from the Northern Territory Government, our remarkable ability to keep on top of this virus has meant we’ve now seen more people come to the Territory, either for work or play, than there are permanent residents in Darwin.

That means more people walking into coffee shops, more people ordering at bars, more people exploring our natural wonders like Kakadu or Uluru, and more people staying at local hotels.

All up, that means more jobs in our tourism and hospitality sectors and more money in the pockets of everyday Territorians, hastening our re-emergence from this deep recession, Australia’s first in a generation.

Kakadu is one of the Territory’s biggest tourism assets. Picture: Supplied

As was recognised last week by the Australian Marketing Institute, Tourism NT has in particular done a remarkable job with its recent campaign in turning around the Territory’s image.

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And with the announcement of new grants for festivals and events today by the NT Government, hopefully a new wave of entrepreneurial Territorians step up and develop new attractions to capitalise on an influx when international borders are reopened in coming months.