Press Release

TOURISM WEBSITE TAKES A HUGE LEAP FORWARD

Tuesday 18 December 2007

Planning and booking a holiday to Tasmania has taken a technological leap forward today with the release of the revamped www.discovertasmania.com website.

The Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment, Paula Wriedt, said the redeveloped website would be a vital resource for potential visitors to Tasmania.

“Consumers will have an enriched source of destination information at their fingertips making it easy to search, plan and book their Tasmanian holiday,” Ms Wriedt said.

The redeveloped website is a part of Tourism Tasmania’s growing online presence that will see discovertasmania.com become a key portal for all things Tasmanian.

“We know that an increasing number of visitors to Australia use the internet for booking part or all of their travel arrangements. Last year, 46 per cent of international visitors who used the internet to gather information before coming to Australia also made an online booking.

“This important website redevelopment is just the start of a comprehensive strategic approach by Tourism Tasmania to continuously improve its use of digital media to meet the needs of today’s consumers.

“Further significant initiatives are currently under way and will become available in 2008,” Ms Wriedt said.
The discovertasmania.com website already attracts an average of 85,000 unique visitors each month, with 29,000 (or 25 per cent) of those from overseas.

Visitor numbers have continued to increase over the past quarter, with rises to the site of up to 15,000 visitors per month.

Over the next few weeks the website will reveal landing pages for 16 international markets and will appear in eight languages - Chinese (Mandarin and simplified), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Italian and of course English.

“In today’s digital age, consumers have more choice than ever before,” Ms Wriedt said.

“By improving our online communication we have the opportunity to reach more people around the world and introduce them to Tasmania’s wondrous beauty and importantly provide them with a means to convert their interest into a visit.

“The interactive and intuitive website also features regular weather reports, visitor itineraries based on Tasmania’s touring routes, and improved search facilities.”

Ms Wriedt said the new website will also be a global platform for Tourism Tasmania’s national and international marketing campaigns.

“We need to make sure we can reach potential customers online through a range of new media and discovertasmania.com will become the key portal for all of Tourism Tasmania’s internet digital communications,” she said.

“We will continue to work with the tourism industry to develop strategic marketing opportunities and increase our use of digital media to position Tasmania ahead of the competition.”

  • Create a highly desirable destination
  • Market the destination effectively
  • Make it easy to travel, and
  • Deliver on that promise.

“The plan covers issues of access to and from Tasmania, travel distribution, the internet, climate change, and the challenge of connecting with potential travellers,” Ms Wriedt said.

“It also includes specific activities to be carried out by Tourism Tasmania and by the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania to achieve the new targets within this new Plan.

“The new targets focus on growth in domestic and international market share and, for the first time, targets for growing the number of Tasmanians holidaying in their own state.”

Ms Wriedt said the two historic milestones of one million visitors and $2.2 billion of visitor spending are expected be achieved during the course of the new three-year strategic plan.

“How soon each milestone is reached will depend on the continuing positive relations and collaboration between the Tasmanian government and tourism industry,” she said.

 

For further information contact Tourism Tasmania's Communications Unit

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