COVID-19 Support and Resources

To augment the comms around the evolving Coronavirus situation, Tourism Tasmania have introduced a new section on their website which provides a top-line summary of support programs available to industry. Please see the ‘Business Recovery’ tile in the middle of the home page which links to a list of references and updates.

• Information for Visitors
• Information for Industry
• Business Assistance

Vital to the economy

Tourism is vital to the East Coast’s local economy. It provides around 1,500 direct and an additional 600 indirect jobs for the region. For the year ended Sept. 2018 we attracted 664,000 intrastate, interstate & international visitors, which contributes $120.5 million annually to the local economy.

Our visitor economy extends far beyond traditional tourism businesses that provide accommodation and experiences for visitors. Many businesses are indirectly supported by visitors to our region including shops, service stations, building trades, farmers, training centres, transport, technology companies and more.

The East Coast has been identified as one of the most tourism-dependent regions in Australia, so it is vital that we manage the future development of our industry and our natural resources and attractions in a planned, coordinated and sustainable way.

Key Findings from the TVS YE September 2019:

• Total visitor spending in Tasmania in the year ending September 2019 has continued to grow reaching a record $2.53 billion, up by 5 per cent. The T21 goal of $2.47 billion by 2020 was reached in the year to March 2019 and has since been exceeded in the subsequent June and September quarters.
• Visitation to Tasmania in the year ending September 2019 has continued to remain steady, with 1.326 million visitors, up 2 per cent from 1.30 million the previous year.
• For the September quarter 2019, total visitors were up 5 per cent to 254,500 from the same period last year. This is the highest number of visitors that has occurred in a September quarter under our recording as part of the TVS.
• For each of the regions in the year to September 2019:
  • South – remained steady with 1.05 million visitors, up 2 per cent;
  • North – remained steady with 708,200 visitors, 0 per cent change;
  • North West and West Coast – down 3 per cent with 510,000 visitors;
  • East Coast – experienced an 8 per cent decrease, with 353,500 visitors.
• We’ve looked into to the East Coast figures as the region has continued to show a decline in interstate visitation. Although there was a decline in numbers in the quarter ending March 2019, the region has since maintained a consistent rate of visitation in the following two quarters which may indicate a leveling off or softening of decline. The quarter ending March 2019 figures were supplemented by strong intrastate visitation in the region in the same quarter.
• Holiday visitation for the year ending September 2019 remained relatively steady, decreasing by 2 per cent, however visiting friends and relatives showed an increase of 6 percent, with total leisure (leisure + VFR) remaining similar to the previous year with 976,300 visitors.
• Interstate holiday visitors increased by 14 per cent to 79,700 for the September 2019 quarter. This is a record number of holiday visitors for a traditionally quiet quarter.

You can view the latest quarterly snapshot from Tourism Tasmania here. You can find more information on interstate and international visitors form the form the Tasmanian Visitor Survey on the TVS Analyser here. There’s also a guide to using the TVS Analyser here.