Territory Stories

Budget Paper No.6 1997/98 Northern Territory Economy

Details:

Title

Budget Paper No.6 1997/98 Northern Territory Economy

Other title

Tabled Paper 3223

Collection

Tabled Papers for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; Tabled papers; ParliamentNT

Date

1997-04-30

Notes

Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.

Language

English

Subject

Tabled papers

File type

application/pdf

Use

Copyright

Copyright owner

See publication

License

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1968A00063

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/289257

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/404114

Page content

In response to the rapid growth in visitor numbers to the Territory, tourism infrastructure investment recorded strong growth during 1996 and early 1997. In Darwin, the 78 room Luma Luma Holiday Apartments, the 208 room Holiday Inn and the 85 room Primavera Resort commenced operation in March 1997 while the 132 room Darwin Central Hotel will be ready for the 1997 tourist season. At Ayers Rock, a $30 million upgrade including 62 rooms at the Desert Gardens and additional rooms at Emu Walk were completed in 1996. Tourism Outlook The NTTCs strategy for tourism development in the coming year will focus on promoting all tourist attractions in the Territory and developing Alice Springs and Darwin as hubs for touring and exploring within Central Australia and the Top End. The Government has allocated $400 000 under its capital works program, to open up the Mary River waterways system which offers some of the best fishing and bird watching opportunities in the world. The program includes the development of three new sites in the Mount Bundy area and two wheel drive access to these sites. Additionally, a $1.5 million cruise ship terminal is planned for construction in 1997-98. The opening of the Alice Springs Desert Park will boost the range of activities available for visitors to the Centre and negotiations to acquire land tenure for the development of a visitor information centre at Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon) is progressing. In addition, the Araluen Centre which features art galleries, a state of the art theatre, a sculpture garden and sites of cultural and historic significance is developing into a significant tourist attraction in Alice Springs. The establishment of three Tourist Drives, namely the Stuart Highway, the Alice Springs/Ayers Rock/Kings Canyon/West MacDonnell route and the Arnhem/Kakadu/Stuart Highways triangle over the next three years under the Drive Market Strategy will promote the image of tourism driving in the Territory. In addition to the significant increase in tourist accommodation in Darwin over the last two years, 600 new hotel and holiday apartment rooms will be available for the 1997 tourist season. Furthermore, a number of tourist accommodation development projects are proposed to provide an additional 380 rooms in Darwin City and Cullen Bay in the next year. These developments will satisfy the increasing accommodation demand from tourists until 2000, after that further development will be required. The 1995 Tourism Development Masterplan has been largely implemented and is now producing results. With some finetuning, continuation of the Masterplan will ensure that the strong growth in the Territorys tourism industry is maintained. Tourism 54