Victoria best place for shopping, sport and the arts in Australia
A “perception of state attributes” surveyed commissioned by the NSW government in 2012 as a plan to increase tourism to the state has found Victoria topping the survey as the premier destination for shopping, sport and the arts in Australia.
The survey ranked cities according to 22 attributes and Victoria filled very well in all of the 22 attributes considered, topping eight categories. The survey found that Victoria is viewed as progressive, a food and wine destination, the top shopping spot and the “most thought of” destination in Australia when it comes to events related to sports and arts and cultures.
Tourism Victoria chief executive Nick Foa suggested a new tourism campaign due to launch next month will encourage more people to visit Melbourne to holiday around the state and potentially attract more interstate visitors to Victoria’s regional and nature-based attractions.
Mr Foa said, "One of the things we recognised was Melbourne is doing particularly well, regional Victoria wasn't doing as well and what we want to do is to encourage regional dispersal. So it's about new money into the state from international and interstate visitors but also regional dispersal of Victorians. Our nature-based experiences are just so much more accessible.”
“Two hours, two and a half hours from Melbourne you can be at the Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island ... these are accessible experiences. The compact diversity of Victoria is our strength.”
A spokesman for NSW Premier Mike Baird hit back at the survey results, saying on Wednesday: "NSW is the number one place in Australia for visitors, visitor nights and visitor expenditure, and Victoria's own research makes this very clear. In fact, NSW had 31.2 million international and domestic visitors in the year to September 2015, who spent $24 billion and stayed 172.6 million nights, according to the latest independent data released by Tourism Research Australia.”
"Compared to this, Victoria had 23.5 million visitors (7.6 million fewer than NSW), who spent $18 billion ($6 billion less than in NSW) and stayed 120 million nights (52 million fewer than NSW)."
So what do you think?
What is Australia’s premier tourist destination? NSW or Victoria?
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