For pilot Liam Sharp, flying over the majestic Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon landmarks is an experience that never gets old.
As the peak tourism season begins in the Northern Territory’s Red Centre, it is a trip he is running more and more each day.
Following several years of underwhelming visitation as a result of COVID restrictions, guests are surging back to the iconic rock and cultural heart of Australia.
“It’s starting to get very busy now, and it’s only going to get busier,” said Mr Sharp, who has been working his first season in Central Australia.
“The more people we get to take up, and the more people we get to show all the different amazing landmarks around here, the better.”
Before the pandemic, tourism comprised 4.2 per cent of the NT economy, with $2.6 billion each year circulating through accommodation businesses and tourism operators.
Travellers’ confidence returning
More than three years on, the industry is still in “recovery mode” at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, but there are positive signs it will return to its former glory, according to Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia.
Chief executive Matthew Cameron-Smith, who oversees the Ayers Rock Resort in the township of Yulara, says the domestic market is helping drive the uptick in demand.
“At the start of May, our bookings were up around 7 per cent on the prior week and that’s up about 24 per cent on the prior year,” he said.
“As confidence returns and access becomes more seamless, we are certainly seeing a strong return.”
In the coming months, more flights into Yulara will be added to the major airlines’ routes, ensuring tens of thousands of additional visitors can make the bucket-list stop.
Many will be coming to see the Wintjiri Wiru experience, a massive nightly drone and laser light show forming images in the sky of the Mala ancestral story, which launched on 11 May.
“We’ve worked with the community now for several years to develop the content, and it’s all been done ethically and working very much in lock-step with community in terms of how that story is told, how that content is sourced,” Mr Cameron-Smith said.
“It will be nightly on an amazing purpose-built deck that overlooks Uluru and Kata Tjuta, and it will be the largest drone show in the world.”
For retirees Mary and Dennis, a 2500km drive up to the NT from Melbourne was not an opportunity to be squandered, after their previous plans fell through.
“We were actually going to come up here three years ago, and then COVID hit and put an end to those plans,” they said.
“So we’ve changed things around and have decided to come now in our caravan because we can.
“We’ve never seen this part of the land before and felt we’d really love to come see it.”
The pair intend to travel through Alice Springs – staying for a fortnight – before heading north on the Stuart Highway towards Darwin.
Alice Springs bypassed
But many other tourists have made different arrangements, instead choosing to bypass Alice Springs, following relentless media coverage of the town’s crime woes.
The soaring cost of living has also seen a slump in the territory’s drive market, with caravan parks reporting a drop of up to 50 per cent drop in bookings compared to last year.
At Curtin Springs Station, a cattle farm and accommodation business 85km east of Yulara, vehicles making the pit stop have significantly reduced.
Lyndee Severin, whose family has been living at Curtin Springs since the 1950s, said the start of the season had been “pretty bloody ordinary”.
“We’re still seeing good groups coming through – both domestic and international,” she said.
“But it’s the self-drive market that we’ve really noticed the drop in what we would have hoped and expected by now.”
Ms Severin says there are multiple factors causing the decline in visitors.
The (really) big Australian rock trip
“We’ve lost flight numbers. Pricing — by sheer necessity — has had to go up,” she said.
“When you have a 40 per cent hike in your building insurance you can’t absorb all of that.
“People are a little bit more conscious of where they’re spending their money, and obviously the publicity about the region does have an impact … but I don’t think it’s that on its own.”
With most tourists visiting Uluru choosing to fly in and out of Ayers Rock Airport instead, Ms Severin is worried she may have to begin letting some of her staff go if conditions do not improve.
“Travellers are conscious about how much time they’re spending in different places,” she said.
“It’s not just Alice Springs. They’re cutting their time in the entire region, doing a little touch and then moving on.”
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