Uluru visitor numbers slump post-COVID in $200 million hit to tourism industry It's known as the jewel in Australia’s tourism crown in the heart of the outback, but

ABC NEWS (Australia)

It's known as the jewel in Australia’s tourism crown in the heart of the outback, but new figures show visitor numbers to Uluru have been sluggish since the end of the pandemic. Operators are blaming a lack of flight options and costs.

Transcript

00:00 It's the bucket list destination for travellers around the world, but there's thousands who

00:07 haven't ticked off a visit to Uluru this year.

00:10 We're certainly seeing some significant decreases compared to pre-COVID.

00:16 New data from Parks Australia shows a slow year so far for Uluru-Katajuta National Park

00:22 compared with pre-pandemic and a boom in the lead up to the closure of the Uluru climb.

00:28 We had a good year last year.

00:30 We have had a number of years of COVID and of course the impacts and challenges that

00:34 we've had to deal with this year.

00:36 Our industry is still very fragile.

00:39 That impact blamed on the slow return of international tourists and on the costs and cuts to Qantas

00:45 and Jetstar flights.

00:48 Tourism operators telling the ABC there's currently less than half the flights into

00:52 Uluru than pre-pandemic.

00:54 We're always keen to remind our national airline that the NT in Qantas stands for the Northern

00:59 Territory and so we're hopeful that with the change of leadership at our national airline

01:07 that we hopefully might see better days ahead.

01:11 We'll say to our national carriers that you must be travelling to the Northern Territory.

01:17 We want to see more flights, we want to see better prices, we want to make sure Territorians

01:21 get the services that they deserve.

01:24 The Minister also making this appeal to domestic travellers.

01:28 There's also a social responsibility here for all Australians to make sure that they

01:32 are travelling to the Northern Territory.

01:34 I think Australians want to travel all over Australia but they need to be given a reason

01:39 to come here and that is for a great experience.

01:43 In a statement Qantas said it remained committed to Uluru and the Northern Territory and would

01:48 resume daily flights from far north Queensland to the region from March next year.

01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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