Hobart lures Australian travellers, with 20pc rise in domestic visitor numbers: report

Hobart has had a major increase in domestic holidaymakers visiting the city, a report has found.

Deloitte Access Economics has compiled data from visitor surveys to produce a report on tourism and hotel outlooks.

It showed Hobart had a 20 per cent rise in domestic visitors, while the rest of Australia only had a 2.2 per cent increase in people holidaying at home.

International visitors to Tasmania dropped 2 per cent over the past 12 months.

Deloitte's Lachlan Smirl said the increase in domestic leisure travellers translated into the hotel sector.

"If we look at Hobart's performance of the last 12 months we've seen occupancies pick up around four percentage points," he said.

"Our outlook for Tasmania and Hobart continues to be quite encouraging.

"In fact over the next three years we've got occupancies in Hobart climbing another three percentage points, that's on top of the four-odd per cent they've grown over the last 12 months alone.

"Alongside that we've got room rates and hotel yields forecast to grow faster than the national average."

Air traffic through Hobart and Launceston grew more than 5 per cent over the year to March, the report said.

Cheap international flights to south-east Asia have been big competition for Tasmania's efforts to lure domestic tourists.

The report comes on the back of hugely successful Hobart-based winter festivals like Dark Mofo and theFestival of Voices.

Source: ABC - 24 July 2014