Peter Gutwein,Minister for State Growth
Last year George Town received over 62,000 interstate and overseas visitors and each year, on average, welcomes over 65,000 intrastate day trips per year.
Tourism is one of Tasmania’s great competitive strengths, supports over 38,000 jobs in every corner of the State and is a major reason why our economy is growing so strongly.
The Hodgman Liberal Government wants every region to benefit from a thriving visitor economy which is why we have partnered with Tourism Northern Tasmania and the George Town Council to develop a Destination Action Plan which identify priority actions to drive the local visitor economy.
These priorities include, fostering local leadership, building awareness of the value of the local visitor economy, improving marketing of the region and developing infrastructure, product, and visitor services to match demand.
Destination Action Plans identify achievable, affordable priorities for private and public support.
Tasmania’s regions are home to some of the best food, wine and beverage experiences in the world including a great selection of vineyards, cellar doors, wine and food festivals, distillery tours, cooking schools, paddock to plate experiences and fantastic cafes, bars and restaurants.
With a record number of visitors coming to our state, it is important that we ensure we give them the best experience possible, and the development of George Town’s Destination Action Plans will assist in this.
Our targets for tourism include:
- Increase visitor spending to $2.5 billion per year by 2020
- 50,000 tourism-related jobs by 2022
- 70% of all visitors to stay overnight in regional areas during their trip to Tasmania by 2022.
