Visitors and expenditure
Tourism NT reports on annual visitor numbers and expenditure. The Northern Territory’s Tourism Industry Strategy 2030, cites a target of 2% annual increase in visitors and expenditure between 2018-19 and 2029-30 for the Northern Territory. This annual increase was adopted for the Darwin Harbour region, allowing targets to be set and compared to for this year’s report card assessment, based on 2% increase in previous years visitors and expenditure.
Data sources:
Scoring method
A report card score was determined by using regional reports sourced from Tourism NT, and using the Northern Territory’s Tourism Industry Strategy 2030 target of 2% annual increase in visitors and expenditure between 2018-19 and 2029-30 for the Northern Territory.
By adding 2% increase on visitors and expenditure for the Greater Darwin Region - year ending December 2019, a target was able to be calculated for the year ending December 2020 (which equalled 1,038,360 visitors and $1,112 billion in expenditure). The actual visitors and expenditure for the Greater Darwin Region - year ending December 2020 was 438,000 visitors and $380 million, respectively. The report card score represents the average percentage of actual to target visitors and expenditure.
Findings
The number of visitors and their expenditure in the Greater Darwin Area received a poor grade (D+) for 2020. The poor grade received this year is highly likely due to COVID-19 restrictions impacting domestic and international tourism numbers in the region.
