Tens of thousands of people have flocked to the National Arboretum since it officially opened a month ago.
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The arboretum recorded more than 42,000 visitors in the first month since it opened on February 2.
Of those visitors, about 15,000 were recorded on the arboretum's open day and first day of operation.
National Arboretum general manager Jason Brown was very satisfied with the initial crowd numbers.
He had hoped for about 30,000 visitors in the first month and credited the successful open day for attracting such high numbers.
"It went exactly according to plan, from the great timing of the Chief Minister with her speech and the sun rising in the background, to just the general co-ordination of such a large event," he said.
"I know a lot of people came back shortly thereafter to start exploring further into the forest."
Mr Brown said visitors had been impressed with the facilities and the central valley had proven to be very popular with people radiating out from it to explore.
"Most of our clientele at the moment is local, which is great, but that will change significantly over the next 12 months," he said.
Mr Brown confirmed they would be targeting the national and international tourist markets to visit the arboretum, which he described as "unique on a world scale".
"No one's really tried to do what we're doing at the moment," he said.
"We've still got a lot of stuff coming online – there's still a lot of construction work to be done, still a lot of planting to be done."
A pavilion for private function hire will be opened in May, along with a children's play area set to open at the end of June.
"That's going to attract a completely different market – there will be young mums and dads and their children coming up here," Mr Brown said.
The new Conservatory Restaurant, run by chef Janet Jeffs, opened on Friday and along with Sprout Cafe is expected to attract more visitors.
Mr Brown would like to see visitor numbers hit 350,000 by the end of the first year of operation but said crowd numbers during winter would have a big impact on the overall target.
"In winter we'd be adding additional programs, obviously indoor programs, to bring people up to the arboretum," he said.
■ The National Arboretum is open every day of the year except for Christmas Day and the Village Centre
is open 9am-4pm daily. For more information, visit nationalarboretum.act.gov.au
- The Chronicle
