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Speaker 1: But look, we are going to continue the discussion about

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Speaker 1: the announcement that happened on Monday the Northern Territory Government,

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Speaker 1: the Chief Minister indeed announcing the purchase of the Silkwod property.

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Speaker 1: It's a thirty thousand hectare parcel of land. The seven

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Speaker 1: point five million dollar deal. He's going to see Lichfield

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Speaker 1: National Park expanded by twenty percent and is the largest

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Speaker 1: addition to the National Park estate in twenty five years.

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Speaker 1: So what does the expansion of Litchfield National Park mean

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Speaker 1: when it comes to tourism. Well, joining me on the

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Speaker 1: show is Tourism Top Ends General Manager, Samantha Bennis. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you, Samantha.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Now, sam what

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Speaker 1: was your reaction and what was the reaction of your

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Speaker 1: customers and stakeholders when you heard that the government have

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Speaker 1: made this move on Monday.

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Speaker 2: Oh, our tourism operators are really excited. This is going

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Speaker 2: to give us twenty percent more park. It's full of

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Speaker 2: beautiful experiences. It's got hot springs, hiking, swimming, We're looking

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Speaker 2: at mountain bike trails, all of those sort of things

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Speaker 2: that are what people come to visit us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, mountain bike trails. I mean that sounds exciting. It's

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Speaker 1: something a lot of people go to Central Australia for.

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Speaker 1: But do we have like currently up here in the

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Speaker 1: top end. Is it something that people come to the

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Speaker 1: NT four Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I think they're a movement of their own, so

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Speaker 2: they'll go wherever the trails are. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So it could be a bit of an expansion, I suppose,

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Speaker 1: not only in terms of the National Park getting bigger,

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Speaker 1: but some of those other avenues getting a little more enticing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. I think it's really about being able to

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Speaker 2: develop new product and I think it's something locals will

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Speaker 2: do as well. So I just everything about this is

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Speaker 2: great for us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell me a little bit more about you

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Speaker 1: know what some of the those tourism operators are saying

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Speaker 1: to you, particularly in terms of seeing the natural landscape

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Speaker 1: for wheel driving all of the above.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think because of the way our peak season works,

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Speaker 2: it's always pretty crowded in all of the parks because

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Speaker 2: everybody comes at the same time. But what operators are

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Speaker 2: really excited about is there may be an opportunity now

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Speaker 2: to operate into the lower seasons and have more on

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Speaker 2: of all year round and that is particularly good for

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Speaker 2: the international market because they tend to get out of

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Speaker 2: their winters in Europe and come in and our build

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Speaker 2: up and our wet season. So I think that the

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Speaker 2: fact that we might have access all year round to

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Speaker 2: some great new places will be really great for operators

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Speaker 2: to create new product and work better with trade in

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Speaker 2: the market.

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Speaker 1: Sam. When people come to the top end, what kind

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Speaker 1: of experiences are are they generally after.

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Speaker 2: A lot of them do come for the wildlife, the wildlife,

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Speaker 2: the bird watching. They come to get out in nature.

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Speaker 2: They this year is really great for Catherine region. It's

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Speaker 2: really about regional dispersals so and it's it's good for

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Speaker 2: the operators in town as well, because basically everybody flies

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Speaker 2: in and drives out of here. So it's great that

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Speaker 2: they spend a couple of days in the hotels and

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Speaker 2: doing all the attractions in town and then they go

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Speaker 2: off and do their camping and their adventure stuff and

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Speaker 2: come back. And it's really interesting. The adventure market was

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Speaker 2: always the youth market, but the demographic of that is

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Speaker 2: getting older. They're the people that are really adventurous.

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Speaker 1: Well, what do we consider old, Sam, Because I suppose

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Speaker 1: I'm probably a bit more adventurous than I used to be.

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Speaker 2: Too, But I don't know what I can That's exactly right.

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Speaker 2: The generation we always did think of them as the

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Speaker 2: backpackers and as I said, that real young market. But

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Speaker 2: the older adventurers are really coming back in force. They

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Speaker 2: just like a soft place to land at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day.

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Speaker 1: Now, I know the Chief Minister had said to us

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Speaker 1: on the show on Monday, you know that there is

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Speaker 1: going to need to be a bit of a further

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Speaker 1: look in terms of how silk good will be developed

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Speaker 1: or not developed. But you know, any sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: infrastructure that might be required to support tourism out there,

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Speaker 1: ie you know, camping and some of the other four

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Speaker 1: wheel driving and that sort of thing. You know, what

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Speaker 1: do you think could be done in this new parcel

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Speaker 1: of land to bring more tourists to the top end.

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Speaker 1: Could we have more of those mountain biking trails? I mean,

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Speaker 1: could it be some further four wheel driving tracks? What

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Speaker 1: do you reckon needs to to be looked into over

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Speaker 1: the coming years.

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Speaker 2: I think keeping it quite quite the way it is

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Speaker 2: will be of benefit as well. I think that, as

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Speaker 2: you said, the four wheel drive tracks. But I also

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Speaker 2: think that there's a willingness from the private sector to

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Speaker 2: invest knowing that they've got to invest in their own

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Speaker 2: infrastructure as what's happened at Kuinda and a number of

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Speaker 2: other places. And the reason for that is they just

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Speaker 2: need to know that they've got you know, longevity in

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Speaker 2: their permits and you know they're going to be able

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Speaker 2: to operate there for ten years. Then they will spend

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Speaker 2: the money and create the product for us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, spot on. That certainty does provide people with, you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess, the ability to be able to invest in

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Speaker 1: their businesses and try to get more people here. Sam,

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Speaker 1: How are Torism numbers looking at the moment? How are

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Speaker 1: we going from your perspective?

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Speaker 2: Oh, I think we're doing okay. We had a really

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Speaker 2: good May, but June was so But of course now

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Speaker 2: we're coming hard and fast into that event season. We've

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Speaker 2: just had the supercars, we've got the Turf Club starting

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Speaker 2: off kicking off today, Darwin Festival Motocross and some of

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Speaker 2: the regional stuff has been really good as well. The

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Speaker 2: numbers that Runga were excellent, taste of Takadu was really good.

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Speaker 2: So I think, you know, we've got to remember that

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Speaker 2: events is what people come for and we've just got

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Speaker 2: to be ready for them when they arrive.

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Speaker 1: Well Tourism Top End General Manager, Samantha Benish always good

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Speaker 1: to speak with you. Thank you so much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, great you two