Press Release

Thursday 29 November 2007

STATE BOOST TO ATTRACT MORE INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS
Tasmania’s ability to attract more international visitors received a significant boost today with the opening of a two-day event to help local operators tap into the lucrative global tourism market.

The Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment, Paula Wriedt, has officially opened the inaugural International Symposium in Hobart.

She suggested that the state’s tourism operators risked missing out on potential future growth unless they expand their horizons and embrace the international market.

“Tasmania has the potential to be one of the world’s most prominent tourist destinations in a highly competitive global market,” Ms Wriedt said.

“At the current rate of growth, the international visitor market could account for as much as 20 per cent of all visitors to Tasmania in just five years, and we need to be ready to meet this growth.

“Last financial year, more than five million international visitors came to Australia. Tasmania attracted around 157,000 of them, which represents an increase in the number of international visitors to our State of nine per cent on the previous year.”

Ms Wriedt said the international symposium was organised by Tourism Tasmania to encourage new operators to think globally, and to further develop the knowledge and skills of those who are already involved in international marketing.

“This is just one of the ways in which Tourism Tasmania is readying the state for international tourism expansion.”
“Another is through the redevelopment of Tourism Tasmania’s key website www.discovertasmania.com”
“This important redevelopment will go live in a few short weeks.

“It will feature landing pages for 22 international markets and eight languages. They are Chinese (traditional and simplified), Korean, French, Italian, German, Japanese and English.

“The site currently captures an average of 85,000 visitors each month, with 29,000 or 25 per cent of those from overseas.”

“The biggest international users are from the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.”

Ms Wriedt urged symposium participants to consider joining Team Tasmania, a group of tourism operators who are currently working in the international markets alongside Tourism Tasmania.

“The key to our success internationally lies in the consistent quality and delivery of our tourism services and experiences, and the capacity to meet rapidly changing market demands,” she said.

“Tourism Tasmania will continue to work closely with our industry, Tourism Australia, and other states and territories to target our major and emerging overseas markets.

“These alliances will also help us to extend our international resources even further by sharing important market knowledge and engaging in strategic marketing partnerships.”

For further information contact Tourism Tasmania's Communications Unit

(03) 6230 8244
email mediainfo@tourism.tas.gov.au