The ACT could resume trans-Tasman flights by spring. Chief Minister Andrew Barr will visit New Zealand next week to meet Wellington and Auckland counterparts to develop a joint package to present to the airlines.
โThis is a rare opportunity,โ Mr Barr said. โWeโve always come up against a lack of aircraft availability. In order to get a new flight into Canberra, weโve generally had to convince airlines to stop flying somewhere else. For the first time since Iโve been Tourism Minister โ weโre talking 15 years now โ thereโs an abundance of aircraft, and the airlines are looking for good places to fly.
โWe think weโve got a very compelling product and offer, and the partnership that we hope to strike with our counterparts in New Zealand will see this as a two-way flow of tourists, business travellers, and friends and family reunited after an extended period where theyโve not been able to travel, even across to New Zealand.โ
Quarantine-free travel between the two Pacific nations resumed in April.
Mr Barr hoped to have flights running between New Zealand and Canberra in time for Floriade (September to October), but said summer would also work well.
On this side of the Tasman Sea, the ACT had never had a better domestic aviation network, Mr Barr stated. There were now direct flights to every capital city (including Darwin and Hobart), and new routes to regional centres like the Sunshine Coast, Cairns and Port Macquarie. The CanberraโMelbourne price war โ โmagic words for consumers and for the tourism industryโ โ could bring large numbers of tourists into Canberra.
In fact, Mr Barr said, Canberraโs tourism sector had rebounded from โthe most disruptive events in living memory for tourism locally, nationally and internationallyโ. Hotels were now 73% full, well above the national average (61%); last April, they were only 14% occupied.
Dr Naomi Dale, CEO of the Canberra Region Tourism Industry Council, said many tourism properties had seen โa really terrific improvementโ in visitor numbers.
The National Zoo and Aquarium has also been lucky to have healthy numbers, a spokesperson said. The Zooโs business manager, Russell Jackson, said that a lot of people were coming down the highway on weekends, but he remained โcautiously optimisticโ; international travel may change the situation.
Mr Barr said the combination of cheap, direct flights and more visitors โaugured well for the coming financial year for the Canberra tourism industryโ.
The ACT Government intends to restore ACT tourist revenue to $2.5 billion by the middle of next year, and grow it to $3.5 billion by 2030.
The COVID-Safe Tourism Co-Investment Program (funding products and infrastructure) and the Tourism Co-operative Marketing Fund (marketing campaigns that increase awareness of the ACT as a leisure destination) have supported more than 100 tourism businesses and invested more than $3 million in the industry, Mr Barr said.
โI was somewhat nervous about what the level of take-up would be,โ Mr Barr admitted. โBut they have been over-subscribed. That gives us confidence that itโs the right model, and that itโs worth investing in again in the future.โ
He said projects funded include new shuttle bus services, a night safari at the Zoo (to be launched later this year), and an ice age exhibit at the National Dinosaur Museum.
Dr Dale said the ACT community could not have created new products and programs without the ACT Governmentโs support.
New products will โpop upโ over the next 12 to 18 months, the Chief Minister said.
โWe are going to have people who have not been to Canberra for a long time coming here, taking advantage of the cheaper air fares and the fact that their tourism options are largely domestic at this point in time,โ Mr Barr said.
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