News
Tourism Promotion Boost Needed Urgently
Posted on Thursday, 4 June 2009 | Permalink
The Tourism Industry says Tasmania is being left behind by other States putting more money into destination promotion to counter the economic downturn and the potential impact of swine flu on travel.
Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania Chief Executive Daniel Hanna said today other States had jumped ahead of Tasmania with funding for campaigns to attract a bigger share of the domestic market.
“We have been calling on the State Government to put an extra $6 million a year into marketing to promote Tasmania in our core markets of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland to protect jobs during the economic downturn,” Mr Hanna said.
“We’ll be looking to next week’s State Budget to counter the effects of the global financial crisis, competition from other states and now the potential impact of swine flu,” he said.
“South Australia has just announced $12 million in additional funding over four years for a direct, consumer-focused tourism marketing campaign within Australia.
“Western Australia is increasing overall tourism funding by $2.9 million and will spend a total of $28 million on tourism marketing.
“This is all direct competition to Tasmania and will affect our market share unless we respond.
Mr Hanna said there was concern in the tourism industry that the swine flu would cause a further contraction in interstate travel.
“We have heard this week from the Director of Public Health that anyone traveling to Tasmania from Victoria who exhibits flu-like symptoms will be quarantined.
“The industry accepts that public health has to come first, but we are very concerned that such measures will have a major detrimental impact on domestic travel, keeping in mind that the vast majority of visitors to Tasmania are domestic rather than overseas tourists. It is therefore very important that governments weigh up the full impact of their decisions in response to swine flu,” Mr Hanna said.
