Victorian Alpine Resorts Visitation Survey Report Summer 2017/18
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VICTORIAN ALPINE RESORTS VISITATION SURVEY REPORT SUMMER 2017/18 Authorised and published by the Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002 Copyright. ISSN 978-1-74287-645-0 (online) © The State of Victoria, Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council, July 2018. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Government logo and the Aline Resorts Co-ordinating Council logo. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0/au/deed.en A PDF copy of this document is available at www.arcc.vic.gov.au For further information on this publication contact the Alpine Resorts Co-odinating Council, phone (03) 9637 9642. Disclaimer: This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and the Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council and their employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loos or other consequence which may arise from your relying on any information in this publication. Acknowledgements Photo Credit: Visit Victoria Report: Prepared by Shanaugh Lyon, Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council Summer 2017/18 Visitation Survey Report Chairperson’s Foreword I am pleased to present the 2017/18 Summer Visitation Survey Report that has been produced by the Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council as part of its on-going research and survey program. Summer 2017/18 saw a 2.8 per cent decrease in vehicle numbers compared to the previous year with just over 200,000 vehicles entering the resorts. There was a 0.2 per cent increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous year, with over 430,000 visitors to the resorts. Whilst the figures show that there continues to be seasonal variation, it is particularly pleasing to see that visitation growth over the summer period is continuing to trend upwards, on average by 3.1 per cent per annum since occupancy surveys commenced in 2008/09. The Alpine Resorts Strategic Plan 2012 includes several actions to grow the summer or ‘green season’ market by capitalising on the competitive strengths of the individual alpine resorts. This report provides consistent measurement and greater understanding of summer visitation, which is important for the assessment of actions taken to increase summer use of alpine resorts by the community. On behalf of the Council I would like to thank all Alpine Resort Management Boards and staff for their ongoing support of this project. Without their assistance to undertake the vehicle and occupancy counts, this report would not have been possible. I trust you find the extensive statistics, charts and other data useful in understanding the visitation patterns to Victorian alpine resorts over the 2017/18 summer period. Arianne Rose Chairperson i Summer 2017/18 Visitation Survey Report ii Summer 2017/18 Visitation Survey Report Executive Summary The 2017/18 summer visitation survey, conducted at all Physical counts of the number of occupants per vehicle Victoria Alpine Resorts from Melbourne Cup Weekend and the purpose of the visit were conducted by Boards until Anzac Day, found that 214,324 vehicles visited the on several days during the survey period. From this data resorts. This was an decrease of 2.8 per cent, or it is estimated that almost 436,000 people visited the approximately 6,000 vehicles, compared to the previous resorts in 2017/18. This is an increase of 0.2 per cent, or year’s result. around 600 visitors compared to the previous year. The Council and Boards have now been conducting such Notwithstanding, annual visitation growth remains surveys for ten years. They show that over that period, positive, averaging 3.1 per cent per annum since visitation has generally been trending upwards across occupancy surveys commenced in 2008/09. resorts, notwithstanding that there has been some variability, perhaps due to events beyond the control of Detailed analysis also shows that there is a difference in resorts, such as large scale fire events in some years. visitation characteristics between weekend/holiday Over the decade, the All Resorts results show an annual periods and weekdays, with vehicle occupancy being trend increase in vehicle numbers of 2.9 per cent. higher for weekend/holiday periods than for weekdays. However, this increase is not evenly spread across all Resort staff and resident traffic remains considerable resorts. higher on weekdays. As with previous years, there is a correlation between An increasing number of road cyclists are also using the vehicle numbers, holiday periods and on-mountain resort access roads, corresponding with an increase in events. The surveys show that for most resorts, peak road cycling events in the High Country. vehicle counts appear to coincide with school holidays and/or long weekends. The staging of major on-mountain events coincident with these key holiday times results in an additional increase in recorded vehicle numbers. The survey results also show that the staging of events outside of holiday times can result in significant increases in visitation compared to non-event, non-holiday weekends. Mt Hotham continues to see large numbers of vehicles visiting and/or passing through the resort. This indicates the tourism significance and popularity of the Great Alpine Road as a regional touring route and as a link between north-eastern Victoria and Gippsland. Falls Creek, Lake Mountain and Mount Buller have shown a decrease in vehicle numbers this year. Mount Stirling remains about the same as last year. Mount Baw Baw has shown an increase of around 1000 vehicles this year. iii Summer 2017/18 Visitation Survey Report Contents Chairperson’s Foreword ................................................................................................................................................................ i Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................................................... iii 1. Background .................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Methodology ................................................................................................................................................................. 2 3. Vehicle Survey – Season Results ................................................................................................................................ 4 4. Vehicle Survey – Weekly Results ............................................................................................................................... 6 5. Visitor Survey Results ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Summer 2017/18 Visitation Survey Report 1. Background 1.1 The Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council (the summer vehicle numbers, with spot occupancy counts ‘Council’) is a statutory body established under the Alpine introduced during the 2008/09 summer season survey to Resorts (Management) Act 1997. It reports to the Hon Lily better estimate the number of visitors introduced. D'Ambrosio MP, Minister for Energy, Environment and 1.5 The Alpine Resorts Strategic Plan 2012 includes Climate Change. Council performs a co-ordinating actions to grow the non-winter or green season market function across alpine resorts, focused on: strategic by capitalising on the competitive strengths of individual positioning, co-ordination, knowledge and understanding, alpine resorts. Consistent measurement of summer attraction of investment and overall promotion of resorts. visitation is critical to the assessment of the success of It also provides advice to the Minister on a wide range of actions taken to increase use of alpine resorts outside of alpine resort issues. the winter season. Vehicle counts provide the most 1.2 Information on visitation to alpine resorts, both accurate means of determining visitation. during the winter season and outside the winter season, is 1.6 The 2017/18 summer survey builds on the important for a wide range of planning purposes consistent methodology and timing used for previous including the determination of economic significance. Ski summer surveys. lift companies, accommodation providers, retailers, suppliers, Alpine Resort Management Boards (‘Boards’), as well as various service providers and government agencies, all make use of this information. 1.3 Visitation during the winter season has been recorded in a systematic way for many years and is now published by the Council on a regular basis. 1.4 Historically, recording of summer visitation to alpine resorts has proven to be more challenging. Since 2007/08, Council and Boards have conducted a survey of 1 Summer 2017/18 Visitation Survey Report 2. Methodology Vehicle Counts 2.1 Since the 2007/08 summer season, automatic Mount Baw Baw counters have been permanently installed on the access 2.6 The Board has a counter at the entry to the roads to each Victorian Alpine Resort. Loops buried in village. Incomplete historical records are available for the roads detect passing axles,