Tourists defy claims

By Tania Martin
VISITORS are returning to the Dandenong Ranges in droves, despite negative reports claiming tourism is taking a dive.
This comes after Shadow Tourism Minister Louise Asher last month slammed the State Government for recording the lowest domestic tourism numbers in 10 years.
Ms Asher said a recent report revealed domestic visitor numbers were only 15.74 million compared to 18 million in 1998-99. She said domestic visitor nights were also down, with only 49.45 million compared to the 55 million recorded in the 1999 period.
But Dandenong Ranges Tourism’s Michael Axel said the hills were not experiencing a downturn.
In fact, he said numbers were improving every day.
Mr Axel said day and overnight stays in the Dandenongs had recovered to the good times before the global economic crisis took hold in September 2008
“Most are back to the levels they were,” he said. “We are coming out of the bushfires and we are also seeing a real boom in international visitors.”
Ms Asher said the State Government’s performance in domestic tourism had been woeful and they needed to take action to boost numbers.
“While domestic tourism has under performed across Australia, Victoria has previously performed well in this market,” she said.
But the State Government has hit back at Ms Asher, saying she needed to get out more and talk to Victorian tourism operators to get the real picture.
A spokesman said Melbourne had 700,000 more interstate overnight visitors than Sydney last year.
He said visitors also spent more than $90 million more in Melbourne than in Sydney, with a total of $4.6 billion spent in Victorian economies.
“If she got out of Brighton occasionally, she would know Victoria is actually performing well following the Black Saturday fires and the global economic crisis,” the spokesman said.