“The Finocchiaro CLP Government” – this is how almost all of its chest-beating media handouts start – claims it is “delivering real results for tourism … highest percentage growth in visitor numbers and expenditure in the nation … an increase of 13 per cent in spending and 19 per cent in overnight trips on the previous year”.

That’s for the whole of the NT. So far as Alice Springs and MacDonnell are concerned, Tourism Research Australia tells a different story.

It provided the details for a graph showing overnight visitor trend going back to 2009 and year by year, ending December last year.

Interstate visitors are the most numerous, but the Centre is now where it was 16 years ago, about 200,000 nights, with a bump in 2020 when the number was around 250,000.

Intra-Territory overnight visitors increased from 75,000 nights to 100,000 – but they don’t bring money into the NT.

The really bad news is the number of international visitors, around Covid freefalling from 160,000 nights in June 2009 to almost zero in December 2022 and at a poor 50,000 nights in December 2024.

Both Interstate and International metrics are recovering very slowly from Covid.

Tourism sources say there are anecdotal improvements in 2025 but no hard numbers yet because the way of generating them has changed.

The town council is buying a shredder that can crunch pretty well everything except steel. This includes vehicle tyres that can be made into road base and soft surfaces for playgrounds. At the moment it costs you $42 per car OR motor cycle tyre. Will the council now charge less? Nothing? Pay you for your old tyres?

This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 26 September 2025.