Mr MITCHELL - 1995-03-01
Given the recent success of the Northern Territory Tourist Commission's summer season domestic campaign, what directions, if any, are planned for the 1995 campaign?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the honourable member is quite correct. The Territory has just experienced a very successful summer campaign on the domestic front. One of the key objectives of the Northern Territory Tourist Commission over the past 2 years has been to extend the shoulder period of our off-peak tourist time. This means that, instead of scaling down tourism operations around September, we would extend the season through to October, November and December. It appears that, during 1994, we may have found the right formula for success.
During the December quarter, interstate traffic to the Territory - and it must be remembered that this was where the bulk of our campaign was targeted - increased by a massive 28% compared with the same period last year. This gave the Northern Territory growth in interstate traffic of 10.4% for the 1994 calendar year. I believe all honourable members would agree that this is a tremendous result for the Territory, particularly at a time when there is a need for tourism investment to meet the 200 rooms per annum required in the marketplace. Our answers may be all before us now if MGM is indeed about to purchase the casino. The company has one hotel in Las Vegas with 5000 rooms - one of the largest in the world. If it could build a similar model here, we would easily achieve our 200 per annum mark.
Part of the growth can be attributed to special deals offered to the Territory by both Ansett and Qantas. The Territory product returned excellent results with both airlines, particularly with Qantas where we went from being No 16 on the list of top selling destinations
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to No 1. I am told that we are still receiving about 600 bookings per week. In order to capitalise on this success, a new summer television and cinema commercial and marketing campaign has been devised by the Northern Territory Tourist Commission. Of course, we will continue to use the Territory's long-running and still highly successful No 1 tourism ambassador, Daryl Somers, in our commercials. Somers will be filmed in the Top End and the Centre. The commercials will be filmed in the next month or so in order to capture the Territory's atmosphere during our summer season. We want to capture places like Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park in full flow and the huge floodplains teeming with bird life.
I thought the Leader of the Opposition might have interjected by now, asking what I intended to do about the Little Finniss or Upper Finniss River which he mentioned in his adjournment debate speech last night.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr COULTER: You did not mention your ministers in the adjournment last night. I note that Mr Woodward, in fact, had written to Max Ortmann when he was Minister for Transport and Works. That was a few grape or mango seasons ago.
Mr Ede: He also spoke to you.
Mr COULTER: He did! He spoke to me in either April last year or April 1993.
If the Leader of the Opposition had bothered to telephone the Department of Transport and Works or if Mr Woodward ...
Mr Ede: I wrote to them.
Mr COULTER: You can pick up the phone. It is pretty simple. If you had walked across the corridor, you could have gone up one floor and asked there. You would have found that $0.5m has been included in the 1995-96 draft capital works program for that precise purpose. We have spent something like $7m on that road at Litchfield National Park. That is not a bad effort when one considers the tremendous demand for roads in the Northern Territory, be they beef roads or roads for tourism purposes. I believe the tourism industry has been well-supported by this government as we try to provide ...
Mr Ede: When are you going to build it?
Mr COULTER: It is on the 1995-96 draft capital works program. It will be considered along with all other roads. There is an enormous demand for roads.
Mr Ede: That could mean the year 2001.
Mr COULTER: But it is there.
Mr Hatton: In early 1995.
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Mr COULTER: It could be. It will be considered in the budgetary context, together with all other roads.
I understand that it is important and I sympathise with operators who are providing tours to Litchfield National Park at the moment. I believe the road has been closed on 18 days since January, and that is not good enough. If we are to extend the shoulder season, obviously the road will have to be fixed to provide access to the wetland areas for people. I wish we could have the same luck and have wet season access to the truly magnificent Jim Jim Falls area. The problem there is not the road but the fact that the federal government simply shuts the place down. It sends the staff on holidays from December to February, closes the road and denies access to Jim Jim falls. At least we are trying. We would like to regain control of that park. If we could, we would then have what we have had with Litchfield National Park. We would not even have to construct culverts there. All we would need would be some people who are prepared to work during the summer season.
However, I digress. I believe the commercials with Daryl Somers will be successful and we will be able to proceed with our summer campaign. In particular, if the road at Litchfield National Park is fixed for the 1996 season, I am sure everybody will be very happy. The initial phase of the campaign will include a new commercial for television and the cinemas and a magazine double spread that will complement this direction. About September this year, we will introduce a specific summer season product to the campaign. This will give the Northern Territory a 2-phased approach, the latter phase being introduced in about September when we hope to see our campaign converting into bookings.
At this stage, we are proposing to spend $1.5m on the campaign. I cannot over-emphasise to honourable members how important it is to extend our season by bringing our off-peak season into the peak season. I am not sure whether Aquascene is included in this, but I will table the double-page advertisement. It is simply another 'Dear Daryl, should we holiday in the Top End in the wet season or take a raincheck until later?' concept.
Page 467
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the honourable member is quite correct. The Territory has just experienced a very successful summer campaign on the domestic front. One of the key objectives of the Northern Territory Tourist Commission over the past 2 years has been to extend the shoulder period of our off-peak tourist time. This means that, instead of scaling down tourism operations around September, we would extend the season through to October, November and December. It appears that, during 1994, we may have found the right formula for success.
During the December quarter, interstate traffic to the Territory - and it must be remembered that this was where the bulk of our campaign was targeted - increased by a massive 28% compared with the same period last year. This gave the Northern Territory growth in interstate traffic of 10.4% for the 1994 calendar year. I believe all honourable members would agree that this is a tremendous result for the Territory, particularly at a time when there is a need for tourism investment to meet the 200 rooms per annum required in the marketplace. Our answers may be all before us now if MGM is indeed about to purchase the casino. The company has one hotel in Las Vegas with 5000 rooms - one of the largest in the world. If it could build a similar model here, we would easily achieve our 200 per annum mark.
Part of the growth can be attributed to special deals offered to the Territory by both Ansett and Qantas. The Territory product returned excellent results with both airlines, particularly with Qantas where we went from being No 16 on the list of top selling destinations
Page 465
to No 1. I am told that we are still receiving about 600 bookings per week. In order to capitalise on this success, a new summer television and cinema commercial and marketing campaign has been devised by the Northern Territory Tourist Commission. Of course, we will continue to use the Territory's long-running and still highly successful No 1 tourism ambassador, Daryl Somers, in our commercials. Somers will be filmed in the Top End and the Centre. The commercials will be filmed in the next month or so in order to capture the Territory's atmosphere during our summer season. We want to capture places like Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park in full flow and the huge floodplains teeming with bird life.
I thought the Leader of the Opposition might have interjected by now, asking what I intended to do about the Little Finniss or Upper Finniss River which he mentioned in his adjournment debate speech last night.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr COULTER: You did not mention your ministers in the adjournment last night. I note that Mr Woodward, in fact, had written to Max Ortmann when he was Minister for Transport and Works. That was a few grape or mango seasons ago.
Mr Ede: He also spoke to you.
Mr COULTER: He did! He spoke to me in either April last year or April 1993.
If the Leader of the Opposition had bothered to telephone the Department of Transport and Works or if Mr Woodward ...
Mr Ede: I wrote to them.
Mr COULTER: You can pick up the phone. It is pretty simple. If you had walked across the corridor, you could have gone up one floor and asked there. You would have found that $0.5m has been included in the 1995-96 draft capital works program for that precise purpose. We have spent something like $7m on that road at Litchfield National Park. That is not a bad effort when one considers the tremendous demand for roads in the Northern Territory, be they beef roads or roads for tourism purposes. I believe the tourism industry has been well-supported by this government as we try to provide ...
Mr Ede: When are you going to build it?
Mr COULTER: It is on the 1995-96 draft capital works program. It will be considered along with all other roads. There is an enormous demand for roads.
Mr Ede: That could mean the year 2001.
Mr COULTER: But it is there.
Mr Hatton: In early 1995.
Page 466
Mr COULTER: It could be. It will be considered in the budgetary context, together with all other roads.
I understand that it is important and I sympathise with operators who are providing tours to Litchfield National Park at the moment. I believe the road has been closed on 18 days since January, and that is not good enough. If we are to extend the shoulder season, obviously the road will have to be fixed to provide access to the wetland areas for people. I wish we could have the same luck and have wet season access to the truly magnificent Jim Jim Falls area. The problem there is not the road but the fact that the federal government simply shuts the place down. It sends the staff on holidays from December to February, closes the road and denies access to Jim Jim falls. At least we are trying. We would like to regain control of that park. If we could, we would then have what we have had with Litchfield National Park. We would not even have to construct culverts there. All we would need would be some people who are prepared to work during the summer season.
However, I digress. I believe the commercials with Daryl Somers will be successful and we will be able to proceed with our summer campaign. In particular, if the road at Litchfield National Park is fixed for the 1996 season, I am sure everybody will be very happy. The initial phase of the campaign will include a new commercial for television and the cinemas and a magazine double spread that will complement this direction. About September this year, we will introduce a specific summer season product to the campaign. This will give the Northern Territory a 2-phased approach, the latter phase being introduced in about September when we hope to see our campaign converting into bookings.
At this stage, we are proposing to spend $1.5m on the campaign. I cannot over-emphasise to honourable members how important it is to extend our season by bringing our off-peak season into the peak season. I am not sure whether Aquascene is included in this, but I will table the double-page advertisement. It is simply another 'Dear Daryl, should we holiday in the Top End in the wet season or take a raincheck until later?' concept.
Page 467
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016