For six months each year, when the humidity level soars in and around Darwin, demand for tours with local tour guide Rob Woods's small ecotourism company takes a steep dive.
"I'd say [there's] probably a 60 per cent, 70 per cent drop from, say, June, July numbers down to say October," he said.
"Each operator is going to have different statistics on that … but, especially, with what we do, it is a big drop."
Even then, Mr Woods and his wife Tracey's company is one of the busier Top End tour guide businesses when the wet season rolls around: it's one of the relatively few that remains open at all.
According to statistics from the Northern Territory Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, 396,000 people visited the Greater Darwin region during the wet season in 2019, compared to 512,000 in the Dry — a fall of about 23 per cent.
With the drop in numbers, a high number of tour businesses close in the wet season, while some hotels reduce capacity and restaurants can close for a month or more.
But that could soon change.
Year-round tourism needed to boost visitor numbers
Tourism NT is trying to smooth out the well-known seasonality of the Top End tourism by driving up visitor numbers in the wet season.
It's part of a strategy for the Greater Darwin region, which aims to boost operator profits, support a more stable workforce and encourage more investment in the industry.
Scott Lovett, the department's deputy chief executive for tourism, said "changing the perception" Darwin was only worth visiting during the dry season was key to boosting the industry's value to $3 billion by 2030, from its current value of $1.84 billion.
Wet season COVID tourism opens up new opportunities
While international tourism to the NT dried up during the pandemic, as it did everywhere else, for a short time the relatively COVID-free jurisdiction became a go-to destination for domestic travellers — including during the wet season.
Even with no international tourists and some border controls still in place, Greater Darwin recorded 195,000 visitors during the 2020-21 wet season, with multiple businesses — including Mr Woods's company — reporting higher-than-usual domestic visitor numbers.
Mr Lovett said that experience had opened stakeholders' eyes to the possibilities of attracting more tourists in the wet season.
"It can be done. We're adamant about that," he said.
Ulrike Kachel, a tourism researcher at Charles Darwin University, said the uptick in tourism in that period could open up a range of new possibilities for operators in the Top End.
"We didn't really have much experience in that sense [before], because in the past we've focused much more on the dry season," she said.
"I think there are now opportunities because tourists came more during the wet season, and hopefully that will help even with just word of mouth, spreading the word that Darwin is actually not that bad during the wet season.
Weather 'not the major inhibitor'
With high humidity, heavy rain and storms and even the occasional cyclone all features of the Top End's wet season, it's little surprise visitor demand has historically been quieter over the Wet.
But Tourism NT believes weather isn't as great a deterrent for travellers as many may think.
Mr Lovett said Singapore and Bali, which enjoy strong year-round tourism despite their tropical climates, were two cases in point.
"The simple reality is, when we go to Bali or when we go to Singapore, two areas with a similar sort of climate to what Darwin and its surrounds has, seasonality doesn't enter into most people's consciousness," he said.
More infrastructure, events, parks access needed
For Mr Lovett, the number one problem is a lack of "product" in the wet season, including infrastructure, activities and attractions.
He said following Singapore and Bali's lead, more water-based attractions and more "resort-style" accommodation would be some of the biggest game changers for the region in the Wet.
And while Tourism NT is keen to play down the importance of weather, he admitted that cooling and greening central Darwin would make wet season conditions a lot more pleasant for tourists.
"In Darwin city, I think [the result] looks like a really vibrant city centre, with more hotels and restaurants, great entertainment options, events, open green space running through the city and down towards the [Darwin] Waterfront, lots of water-based activities, and quite an activated city space," he said.
Dr Kachel said with Top End communities used to tourism activity considerably slowing down in the Wet, the lack of events and activities on at that time of year also played a role.
"At the moment it sounds like 'oh nothing is happening during the Wet', in terms of events and markets, or not much else, and then people might get the impression that there's nothing there," she said.
Could Darwin capture the Bali market?
Asked if, with significant development, Darwin could one day increase wet season tourism to the point where year-round visitation matched Singapore and Bali, Mr Lovett said: "Why not?"
"Whether we are going to register the same level of visitation as Bali or Singapore in the next few years? Probably not. But I think we locals tend to think to ourselves, 'well it's the wet season and no one's going to travel here'," he said.
For now, during the wet season, Mr Woods says things aren't so bad for his company.
The business makes enough money during the Dry to tide it over year-round and runs tours specifically tailored to the Wet – though with much fewer tourists – when the season kicks in.
But he said an increase in wet season tourism across Greater Darwin would benefit all operators across the region.
"Not only can we boost it, we should boost it, because the wet season has every bit of specialness and unique educational components and experiential value that the dry season has," he said.
"At the moment it feels like we're only sharing half of the cake."
