Mrs FINOCCHIARO - 2016-03-16
Can you please outline what funding the Northern Territory government is providing the tourism industry through the Boosting our Economy package?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is a good question about tourism from the member for Drysdale. Tourism, in contrast to crime, is going up. Where crime levels are going down, tourist numbers are going up. Today we saw the release of the National Visitor Survey statistics which talked about domestic tourists coming to the NT. It showed an increase – I am sure the member for Greatorex will love to hear this – of 29% in holiday visitors coming from around Australia to the NT. That shows the Do the NT campaign is highly successful. These numbers are up in all regions of the NT, not just in the Top End, the southern end, Kakadu or Uluru. This is right across the board, including Nhulunbuy. They are very good figures.
We spoke a bit about this yesterday, and I said we had a target of a $2.2bn economy by 2020. Achieving that target will be difficult, but we have been sitting at $1.5bn, $1.7bn and $1.9bn. I can confirm that the NT now has a $2bn tourism economy. We are well on track to achieve our goal and we still have four years to do that.
I had the opportunity of talking today about our Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund. It started two years ago with $500 000, and in the currently financial year it has $4.75m. It saw some 210 applications for more than $15m. It is about putting money into infrastructure for tourism to support the development and redevelopment of product so tourists who come to the Northern Territory get a better visitor experience. That money has been fully subscribed and allocated.
I announced today that part of our $100m Boosting the Economy package, $5m, will go towards a new infrastructure development fund. It is being brought forward from next year to start now. Advertisements will go out from today onwards asking people to put forward their ideas of how we can invest money in tourism.
There are a few criteria on this. We are not looking at supporting accommodation. We want to see people provide a co-contribution of 50% so we double our $5m and get $10m worth of work to help stimulate parts of our community that support the tourism industry. We have said we want some money going towards tourism businesses being China ready, that is, getting ready for the Chinese tourist wave that will be coming to the Northern Territory – whether that is updating websites, menus or flyers.
Madam Speaker, today’s results are a sure sign that things are going gangbusters. It is the biggest increase in Australia for tourist numbers. There is new investment going into the Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund so we have shiny new rides for tourism. It is a great time to be participating in tourism in the Northern Territory. It is a sure sign that the Country Liberals plan for tourism is leading to every success.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is a good question about tourism from the member for Drysdale. Tourism, in contrast to crime, is going up. Where crime levels are going down, tourist numbers are going up. Today we saw the release of the National Visitor Survey statistics which talked about domestic tourists coming to the NT. It showed an increase – I am sure the member for Greatorex will love to hear this – of 29% in holiday visitors coming from around Australia to the NT. That shows the Do the NT campaign is highly successful. These numbers are up in all regions of the NT, not just in the Top End, the southern end, Kakadu or Uluru. This is right across the board, including Nhulunbuy. They are very good figures.
We spoke a bit about this yesterday, and I said we had a target of a $2.2bn economy by 2020. Achieving that target will be difficult, but we have been sitting at $1.5bn, $1.7bn and $1.9bn. I can confirm that the NT now has a $2bn tourism economy. We are well on track to achieve our goal and we still have four years to do that.
I had the opportunity of talking today about our Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund. It started two years ago with $500 000, and in the currently financial year it has $4.75m. It saw some 210 applications for more than $15m. It is about putting money into infrastructure for tourism to support the development and redevelopment of product so tourists who come to the Northern Territory get a better visitor experience. That money has been fully subscribed and allocated.
I announced today that part of our $100m Boosting the Economy package, $5m, will go towards a new infrastructure development fund. It is being brought forward from next year to start now. Advertisements will go out from today onwards asking people to put forward their ideas of how we can invest money in tourism.
There are a few criteria on this. We are not looking at supporting accommodation. We want to see people provide a co-contribution of 50% so we double our $5m and get $10m worth of work to help stimulate parts of our community that support the tourism industry. We have said we want some money going towards tourism businesses being China ready, that is, getting ready for the Chinese tourist wave that will be coming to the Northern Territory – whether that is updating websites, menus or flyers.
Madam Speaker, today’s results are a sure sign that things are going gangbusters. It is the biggest increase in Australia for tourist numbers. There is new investment going into the Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund so we have shiny new rides for tourism. It is a great time to be participating in tourism in the Northern Territory. It is a sure sign that the Country Liberals plan for tourism is leading to every success.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016