Channel Nine, Today Show
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: We're not the only ones who love Australia, thewhole world does. A new survey released this morning shows tourism is at anall-time high with visitors spending more than 100 billion dollars on Aussieholidays over the past year. For all the details we're joined now by Trade andTourism Minster Steve Ciobo. Good morning to you Minister.
STEVEN CIOBO: Good morning, Sylvia.
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: This is great news for tourism operators, isn'tit? What exactly does the report tell us?
STEVEN CIOBO: Look, it is great news because what the survey'sshowing is that we've got an increase in visitation across the board. We have,in summary, more tourists staying longer and spending more than they ever haveand the great news about that Sylvia, is it's helping to drive our economy andit's helping to create jobs for Australians.
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: It's great to see too, a huge portion of that100 billion comes from domestic visitors. So Australians loving Australia asmuch as international tourists. Where are you seeing the largest growth at themoment?
STEVEN CIOBO: The great news behind this story is thedispersal. It's not just people that are holidaying in Sydney and Melbourne,they're actually getting out to the regions and the biggest increase was Tasmania.Over the last three years, spending in Tasmania has increased by 54 per cent.If you look at the total number of visitors, for example, in Western Australiathey've increased by 28 per cent over the past three years. So some real standout performers when it comes to both international and Aussies that arechoosing to holiday here in Australia.
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: It's good to see. Can you tell us quicklyMinister, or give us an update perhaps, on how things are going around theWhitsunday's region where a lot of operators were hit quite hard by CycloneDebbie?
STEVEN CIOBO: You know, I'm really grateful because you guyshave maintained a constant interest in how that part of the world's going andthe news is good. I mean, Airlie Beach, the Whitsunday's, most of the resortsare up and going again and many Aussies have rallied to the cry to help outtheir fellow Aussies by going up there for holidays. There's still some resortsthat are closed down, but one of my jobs is to try to encourage more investmentback into the region to get those resorts back up on their feet.
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: No doubt that will happen very quickly. I wasvery lucky to check it out over the weekend actually, and will do again thisweekend. So I'll report back to you with some more information shorty.
STEVEN CIOBO: Good on you.
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: Minister, thank you.
BEN FORDHAM: Why don't we get the Minister Steve Ciobo to do a Lara Bingle,"Where the bloody hell are you?" style campaign on the beachsomewhere in the Whitsundays? Minister, you should be fronting this campaign.
STEVEN CIOBO: You know what, I don't look great in a bikini.I'm just going to put that our there. I'm not sure that's-
SYLVIA JEFFREYS: Boardies are fine, Minister. We're fine withthat.
BEN FORDHAM: We prefer the budgies. Thanks for your time. Steve Ciobo joiningus from Parliament House.