Tourist-tracking project delivers powerful insights into Tasmania's strengths and weaknesses

Posted May 13, 2016 06:19:23

Tasmanian scientists have monitored the real-time movements of tourists in Tasmania over 18 months in one of the largest and longest studies of its kind.

The researchers approached tourists at airports and on the Spirit of Tasmania ferries and persuaded them to carry mobile phones with an app that relayed GPS data and prompted them to answer surveys.

Dr Anne Hardy from the University of Tasmania's Tourism Research and Education Network was surprised by the level of detail provided.

"Seeing people sleep in their car, seeing visiting family and friends coming to Tassie and going to the prison, being able to tell that not many people go to specific suburbs, that was what was really interesting to us," she said.

The pilot study backed by the CSIRO's Sense T program provided location data that was accurate to within 10 metres.

Scientists were able to determine that visitors spent on average 1.5 hours at Launceston's Cataract Gorge, about 2.5 hours at Mona and more than three hours at Port Arthur.

Dr Hardy said many tourists travelled long distances by car, often late at night.

"We found that they were leaving Hobart quite late in the day for some people, going up to these places which were a four-hour drive away and then returning at night time," she said.

"So in terms of protecting wildlife, ensuring safety, those sorts of things were really significant."

The study also categorised tourists according to their main reason for visiting Tasmania.

Tourists avoid overnighting at top spots

Visitors who wanted to experience the arts, food and wine tended to remain close to Launceston and Hobart.

Those who cited wilderness and the environment as the reason for their stay were more likely to travel to the west coast.

Dr Hardy said the study also revealed that many visitors avoided overnight stays in iconic destinations like Cradle Mountain and the Freycinet Peninsula, possibly due to a lack of tourist infrastructure.

"We can see where people are pulling over, we can see how much they're using car parks, we can see the public toilets they're using, we can see where they visit and do not visit in terms of public infrastructure in national parks and places like that," she said.

"So that's really, really important to us, particularly because we've got so many more visitors coming to the state now, that demand on infrastructure's going to get higher and higher.

"That information allows us to really drill into the needs, and to meet unfulfilled demand."

Value of insights and information 'limitless'

University of Tasmania political scientist Professor Richard Eccleston was excited by the study's potential to identify infrastructure gaps and evaluate marketing campaigns.

"There are some immediate applications in terms of infrastructure needs and bottlenecks, but really the potential's limitless. There are a whole range of public and private applications," he said.

"For example, the Three Capes walk has been widely lauded, but there's this question about whether walkers who do the walk, do they stay on the Tasman Peninsula? Do they start the walk having travelled from Hobart?

"Questions like that in the future we'll be able to answer with hard data straight away."

Topics: science-and-technology, travel-and-tourism, tas