NT National Park expanded in efforts to entice tourists in the Australia’s Top End

ABC NEWS (Australia)

While the rest of the country freezes, the tropical north is enjoying dry, warm days without a cloud in sight. In an effort to entice tourists to hang around a bit longer than the peak Top End season, millions of dollars have been spent to expand Litchfield National Park by tens of thousands of hectares opening it up to year-round camping, swimming and four-wheel driving.

Transcript

00:00New Outback adventures await, just 90 minutes from Darwin.

00:07Litchfield National Park is set to expand almost half the size of Singapore

00:12following the NT government's seven and a half million dollar move

00:16to bring more of the bush into public hands.

00:19This portion of land has hundreds of kilometres of four-wheel drive track,

00:22gorges, waterfalls, places for rock climbing, bird watching, for people to camp.

00:28A boost for the Territory lifestyle.

00:30Sounds like every Territorian's dream, right?

00:32The government also hoping this new stretch of wilderness

00:35will be a tourism lifeline during the monsoon months.

00:38You can go mid-monsoon, up through river crossings, all the way up in camp,

00:44mid-wet season, which is pretty rare in Darwin.

00:47Having somewhere we can access all year round

00:50means that we're going to address the seasonality problem we've got.

00:53The Northern Territory saw a boost in tourism

00:56over the first quarter of this year compared to last year,

00:59while nearly all other parts of Australia saw a dip.

01:02But nationally, data shows people are travelling less and spending less.

01:08And these tourists say the wet season is a hard sell.

01:12We've come from South Australia where it's 15 degrees to get some sun on our backs.

01:18So I don't like humidity.

01:20And in your wet season, it's beautiful weather at home.

01:22I prefer coming up from Melbourne where it's 13 degrees to 30 plus degrees.

01:27Local business owner Lisa Richards hoping the multi-million deal will pay off,

01:32with sales lagging so far this year.

01:35It's a good thing but, I don't know, we just, I don't know.

01:39We need like a Bali vibe.

01:41We need like maybe a beach club.

01:43The area is accessible now, but it will still be a couple of years

01:47before official campsites and swimming spots are open.

01:51And that thing goes to you.

01:52Yeah, yeah.

01:53That's awesome.

01:54Yeah.

01:55That's awesome.

01:56Yes.

01:57What?

01:58A lot of people have had any of these things there.

02:00They're very much more of the problems.

02:01And they're very different than others.

02:02They're very different than others.

02:03And they're very different.

02:04They're very different.

02:05They're very different.

02:06They're very different or different what they're doing.

02:07But the fact is, the fact is that if you're one of the people who have a SPEAKER of the

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