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The year before the pandemic, two million tourists from around the world poured into the Northern Territory, filling up hotels, crowding restaurants and booking out tours.
Key points:
- Tourism expenditure exceeded $2.6 billion in 2022, according to new government figures
- Tourism operator Rick Jones says this year has been a "magnificent" year for tourism
- But he's questioning why more isn't being done to promote the wet season, a time when tourist numbers "fall off a cliff"
Then they were gone, leaving a gaping hole in the economy and tourism operators with nothing to do but wait.
Three years on, new data from the Northern Territory government shows things are back on track.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles on Wednesday said 1.46 million visitors holidayed in the Northern Territory in the year to September, spending a total of $2.6 billion — matching records set in 2019.
"We're seeing domestic length of stay and spend increasing on pre-COVID pandemic levels, and we're really excited to once again welcome international tourists," Ms Fyles said.
According to government figures, interstate tourism was up by four per cent compared to 2019 levels and Territorians travelling and exploring their backyard was up by 21 per cent.
The Northern Territory has bounced back from the pandemic better than any other jurisdiction in the country for domestic tourism spending, according to data from the Tourism & Transport Forum released last week.
It shows domestic tourists spent 30 per cent more in the NT in the year up to October than they did in 2019.
'We just couldn't keep up'
Rick Jones is the chief executive of Kakadu Air, a scenic flight service based in Darwin that's been operating for four decades.
He said the 2022 tourism season has been "magnificent".
"We just couldn't keep up. We didn't have enough aeroplanes with enough pilots. We didn't have enough people on the ground. There weren't enough motel rooms to book them into," he said.
"I think anecdotally ... there was a lot more tourists driving, there was a lot more caravan traffic.
"I believe that there were more tourists in the territory of every sort."
At the height of the dry season — between May and October, when the majority of tourists visit the NT — Kakadu Air pilots were flying up to 150 passengers across some of the territory's most popular sites.
But when October hit, bringing with it intense humidity and scorching temperatures, those numbers crashed.
Today he's flying just two people.
"To operate our business, which is not an ideal way to operate a business, you basically have to stash a whole bunch of money away during the dry season and hope and pray it's enough to get you through the wet season," Mr Jones said.
When October comes along, he said, tourism numbers "fall off a cliff".
"It's like someone throws a switch — it's unbelievable."
Stretching the NT's tourism season
It's a reality nearly all tourism operators face in the Northern Territory.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the government was working to entice visitors in the off-season, which includes the $5 million NT Summer campaign aimed at inspiring Australians to seek an early start to the summer and book trips between September 2022 and March 2023.
During the pandemic, the NT government rolled out a tourism voucher scheme, which Mr Jones said significantly eased the burden of the drop in interstate and overseas tourists.
And now he's questioning why the government isn't doing more to promote the NT wet season, which typically runs from November to April.
"There's doesn't seem to be anybody promoting the Northern Territory from what I can see," he said.
"Fly over Kakadu now or anywhere in the Northern Territory right now, you can see it is beautiful, it's pretty and there's water everywhere.
"It's magnificent."