Territory tourism welcomes $3bn spend in 2022-23 season
It’s the jewel in the crown when it comes to the Territory - this is what the $3bn industry delivers. SPECIAL REPORT
Northern Territory
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Tourism has brought $3 billion into the Territory in just one year, marking the second highest annual expenditure ever.
The latest data, released on Wednesday, showed a total of 1.6 million people visited the NT in the year to June 2023, spending an average of seven nights and about $1800 per trip.
The Greater Darwin and Katherine Daly regions welcomed about a quarter more tourists on the previous year, while Alice Springs Macdonnell visitors shot up 38 per cent, Lasseter was up 47 per cent and Barkly 21 per cent higher.
The Kakadu Arnhem region was the only one to record a downturn at 7.7 per cent.
Tourism Minister Nicole Manison said international tourists were also starting to return after the pandemic.
“It’s not quite where we want it to be nationally and in the Northern Territory, but we’re seeing positive growth,” she said.
“We’re seeing our great old friends from the US, the UK, Germany … but for the first time we have also seen India in our top five visitors – a country of 1.4 billion people with huge people to people connections with the Northern Territory.”
Of the 1.6 million visitors half came to the Territory to holiday, 500,000 to do business and 200,000 to visit friends and family.
Ms Manison said the post-Covid record-breaking expenditure had put money “into the hands of our hardworking tourism operators, hospitality venues and retailers”.
“We had a huge year last year, and we had a slow start to the season this year,” she said.
“But the great news is we really did see that season pick up well and truly in the dry and the forward bookings for October are looking very strong as well as a record cruise ship season coming in.
“To top that off, we have new aviation services that will be starting in November and December with Bonza coming to the Northern Territory.
“We’re also working hard to try to get some more airlines into Uluru as well as continuing to look at other options for Darwin and Alice Springs.”
It comes as Ms Manison revealed she would travel to India next month with an aim to attract new flights as part of the government’s aviation attraction scheme.
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Originally published as Territory tourism welcomes $3bn spend in 2022-23 season
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