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Weeks into what should be the peak visitor season in Darwin, in a year operators hoped tourism would continue its bounce back, David Woodrow is reducing departures for his Darwin Harbour sunset cruise business.
- Hotel occupancy rates are sitting at just 56 per cent for the month of May
- The cost-of-living crisis, expensive flights and tourists travelling overseas have been identified as challenges
- The NT budget tipped in $35.5 million over two years to boost tourism
"Pre-COVID, we were running lunch cruises three or four times a week, and at the moment we're running them once a week if we're lucky," he said.
It has meant Mr Woodrow, who has operated the popular tourism experience for a decade, has hired fewer staff, who cannot get as many shifts as usual.
His business is down about 25 per cent, he estimates, months after the industry announced a record-breaking year in 2022 with visitor spending reaching $3.1 billion.
"We're at the peak and it's not going to get any better that I can see," he said.
In the Top End of Australia, during the dry season, tourism activity peaks between May and October and dips significantly during the monsoonal wet season.
NT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland said this period was a key time for businesses to "stash a few dollars away for the next wet season".
"But we're seeing the impacts of high costs of flights to the territory, high cost of accommodation and even potentially safety and security concerns impacting on the number of visitors," he said.
One traveller told the ABC a return flight from Brisbane to Darwin cost him $1,400, while travellers Rowan and Jane Brander had multiple flights from Victoria cancelled over a 12-month period.
Mr Ireland said he was aware hospitality bookings and revenue were "down a considerable amount ... around 25 to 30 per cent".
"I think anecdotally we can see that through the business community, caravan parks and other tourism-related activities are seeing less travellers," he said.
Phillip Parnaby, who owns a tourist park in Coolalinga, said he had staff on stand-by in the hopes things picked up soon.
In the meantime, he has reduced operation costs to keep campsite fees competitive in a bid to encourage longer stays.
Amid a cost-of-living crisis, he said the next six months would be critical for operators.
"It's very important, because our energy bills are all going to go up and all our fuel, so you got to have a good year, because if we don't we might not be here next year," he said.
"But I am confident we will have a good year."
The NT government's budget, handed down in May, allocated $35.6 million for tourism marketing over the next two years.
Tourism Minister Nicole Manison said the government's "Summer Starts Early" campaign had seen "enormous success" in getting tourists to travel in the quieter wet season months.
Michael Johnson, the head of Tourism Accommodation Australia and interim chief of the Accommodation Association, said the hotel occupancy rate in May was sitting at just 56 per cent, according to the latest data he had seen.
Comparatively, the May occupancy rate for 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic began, was 71 per cent.
Those stats are backed up by the NT government's latest tourism figures, which show a 70 per cent drop in international visitor numbers, from 299,000 in 2019 to just 90,000 in 2022.
The data also shows a drop in domestic numbers.
"The pent-up demand that we had last year following COVID, Darwin was high on everyone's bucket list, they wanted to have a new experience, but not necessarily go off-shore," Mr Johnson said.
"But we're now seeing the number of Australians going [overseas] is back to pre-pandemic levels."
He said a lack of flights to Darwin from the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne was having an impact, as well as high airfares.
He also said the cost of living and the absence of international visitors, especially from China, was costing the NT tourism industry.
Howard Halter, the manager of the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, a popular dry season drawcard in Darwin, said the markets, usually "shoulder to shoulder", were not yet so in 2023.
"The cost of living at the moment is putting the bite on some people. In previous years, [families] have come through and they would get a crepe for each child, now a lot of them are sharing," he said.
For market stallholders, a challenging year could have significant repercussions.
"It is 100 per cent the income for some of the people here, they do some of the other markets throughout Darwin and it's the same all round, so it does hurt them as well," Mr Halter said.