But domestic tourism fell by 17 per cent in the "Katherine-Daly" region on those same statistics.

Spending $2.6 billion, 1.95 million domestic and international visitors travelled to the NT on holiday, to visit friends and relatives, for business travel, study and employment.

This snapshot of domestic visitors was compiled by Tourism NT.

The same breakdown to include Katherine-Daly was not available with overseas tourists. but when combined stated tourism for Katherine-Daly was down 15 per cent.

The recorded number of visitors to the Katherine Visitor Information Centre as detailed in each month's Katherine Town Council agenda shows a reduced number of visitors across 2019 but there has been some concern about the accuracy of "counters" used at various entrances.

Tourist visits to Nitmiluk Gorge continue to rise and authorities expect numbers to boom at Leliyn (Edith).

Tourist operators are known to be unhappy with the construction zone at the hot springs, work began there in 2016 and continues today.

Local caravan parks have told Katherine Times the grey nomad business continues to stay strong.

Interstate holiday visitors to the Territory, a key target market for the Government's Turbocharging Tourism investment, grew by 8.9 per cent for the year, the NT Government said.

The results also show strong growth internationally, driven by increasing visitors from Japan and the US, with the NT performing second-best nationally in terms of international visitor growth, behind ACT.

The devastating bushfires currently impacting many communities across the country will likely have an effect on people's future travel plans.

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Upgrade plans for Leliyn.

Whilst it is still too early to quantify the impacts of the bushfires, Tourism NT is working with Tourism Australia and other state tourism bodies to let people know that Australia is Open for Business.

Acting Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture, Eva Lawler said: "Tourism is a highly competitive global industry and we need to ensure that we keep our foot on the pedal when it comes to promoting the Territory, because more visitors means more money into the economy and more jobs for locals.

"These figures show that when we do increase our investment and focus on marketing the Territory, we see a direct increase in visitation.

"We have exceeded our 2020 visitor spend target by $400 million, with visitors spending $2.6 billion locally in the year to September 2019.

"We are now working to build on these results and achieve our 2030 targets of more than 3 million visitors a year, accounting for $3.67 billion in visitor expenditure."

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