It's March and the silly season has come to a close, says Sapphire Coast Tourism manager, Anthony Osborne.
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“From most reports the season has been solid and after spending a few weeks immersing myself on the visitor side, with family in tow, I can reaffirm we are not the only ones who consider this one of the best places on earth!”
Mr Osborne said that the positive comments and feedback regarding the area’s natural strengths, and stunning weather, were overwhelming.
He said that just prior to Christmas SCT received its own present - positive quarterly data from Tourism Australia demonstrated there had been some bounce back in the domestic tourism market.
“Call it the dip in the dollar, election, marketing, whatever driven - let's just call it good news.”
Mr Osborne said that the data, for the year ending September 2013, showed overnight visitor numbers reached their highest levels since 2008, with an on paper increase of 40 per cent on the same period in 2012.
“With significant 25 per cent margins of error allowed for, this was a great result.”
This year will see SCT continue to focus on the area’s unique strengths and new markets.
“We will continue to put significant human and financial resources in to driving visitors to our best experiences and nurturing new markets in order to increase yield over the shoulder and off peak periods,” Mr Osborne said.
“Our focus on a collaborative digital approach is bearing fruit in a significant way with stunning numbers since the launch of our new sites and content in 2013. The peak period saw 48,000 unique visitors across our family of sites, more than double on the same period the previous year.”