The Great Eastern Drive is now open and ready to take its place amongst Australia’s iconic road trips.
This stretch of highway between St Helens and Orford is as breathtaking as any stretch of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, in fact it’s better.
The drive should be a must-do for tourists and will help bring more visitors to the magnificent East Coast.
With some important improvements to the road and clever marketing to let everyone know that this is not just ‘a great drive’, but it’s ‘the Great Eastern Drive’ it will challenge for the title of Australia’s top destination for a coastal road trip.
We are investing $500,000 into this transformation to provide new signage and a marketing campaign over the next two years to showcase this beautiful regional tourism area.
Over the coming months, a number of signs will be rolled out along the Great Eastern Drive and at other strategic locations that will help identify the touring route for tourists.
We are working with the East Coast Regional Tourism Organisation and local government to promote this amazing stretch of road and all the region has to offer.
The East Coast has experienced an 18 percent increase in tourists in the 12 months to September last year, and marketing the Great Eastern Drive as itself an iconic visitor experience will help maintain the momentum.
New experiences like the Great Eastern Drive will help to achieve our target of attracting 1.5 million visitors to Tasmania each year by 2020.
Will Hodgman, Minister for Tourism, Hospitality and Events
