Overseas visitors drawn to Tasmania

John Fitzgerald - Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Tasmania

Tasmania is firmly on the radar for overseas travellers with the latest figures indicating the state welcomed a record 279,000 international visitors in the year ending December 2017.

It represents an 18 per cent increase on the same period the previous year and is the highest rate of international growth of all Australian states and territories.

Tasmania is attracting strong visitation from our key international markets with the International Visitor Survey (IVS) indicating exceptional growth from China (60%), Canada (53%), Germany (45%) and the USA (33%).

International visitors are an important market for Tasmania, spending a record $497 million last year with international leisure visitors staying an average 12.3 nights in the state compared to an average 8.6 nights for domestic leisure visitors.

Tourism Tasmania embeds marketing managers in key eastern and western markets to promote Tasmania through targeted activities in their region.

A refreshed International Market Approach was implemented last year to broaden the operational focus of our in-market managers to increase Tasmania’s profile and brand awareness and generate more travel bookings.

Tourism Tasmania’s long term target is to increase international leisure visitation as a proportion of the state’s total visitor market which will contribute to the T21 goals and help future proof the Tasmanian tourism industry.

More information about the latest IVS results are available at Tourism Research Australia.

14 March 2018