69-85

Research papers

• Taylor, Andrew
• Carson, Dean

Desert areas account for around 70% of Australia’s landmass but are home toless than 3% of the population. The economies of many desert areas have beendescribed as marginal or peripheral. Tourism is an important economic activityfor desert destinations and one sector, four wheel drive tourism, has been gainingincreasing attention. This paper examines the spending patterns of four wheeldrive visitors to desert regions of the Northern Territory of Australia andcompares them to non-four wheel drive leisure visitors for a five year period from2000 to 2004. In addition to assessing the amount of expenditure (overall and perday), the research investigates whether there were differences in expenditureitems and the dispersal of expenditure among destinations. This information canhelp inform decisions about levels of investment for attracting the four wheeldrive market which might be justified, and the types of product opportunities thatmight arise from a growing market.

• Other social sciences

• Τουρισμός

four wheel drive tourism, desert tourism, economic contribution of tourism, remote area tourism

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