Travellers warm to WA

WA is shedding its “too expensive” tag as a holiday destination, with figures showing an influx of almost a million extra visitors in the past year.

The latest visitor survey revealed the number of domestic tourists was up almost 15 per cent, injecting $4.57 billion into the local economy. The increase has been attributed to a waning in Perth’s reputation as a pricey “boom town” and the low Australian dollar making local travel more attractive.

A whale shark on Ningaloo Reef. Picture: Sal Salis

Almost 7.9 million domestic tourists, from within WA and interstate, visited in the year to March, compared to 6.9 million the previous year.

Camels on Cable Beach in Broome. Picture: Broome Tourism.

Overseas tourism also grew, driven by visitors from Europe and the USA, according to Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall.

Mr Hall said the lower Australian dollar encouraged overseas visitors but also made Australians more likely to holiday at home. The slowdown in the mining industry in WA had also led to cheaper, more readily available hotel rooms for tourists.

“Rates for a CBD hotel room have been down about ten per cent on average, if not more, over the past 18 months,” he said.

The Perth skyline over the Swan River. Picture: @imogenbeth/Instagram

 “Leisure hotel rooms ... for Friday and Saturday night rates are really down, up to 20 per cent off the rates of three or four years ago.

 “Hotel prices were prohibitive throughout the resources boom, plus there were never enough rooms to go around. That has declined quite quickly and hoteliers have responded with cheaper prices that are really stimulating holiday makers.”

 Mr Hall said West Australians holidaying in their home State was a rapidly growing group that had quickly become “the absolute backbone of our tourism economy”. One of the biggest winners had been the Margaret River region, which had “spectacular” results.

The Valley of the Giants tree-top walk in Walpole.

Tourism Minister Kim Hames said it was encouraging to see domestic visitors contributing so much to the WA economy. However, more could be done to attract interstate tourists, which prompted the State Government to allocate $11 million over two years to focus on that market.

“Obviously the buoyant international visitor trend we’re seeing at the moment is very positive, and we’re certainly on track to increase the value of tourism in WA to $12 billion by 2020 in line with our strategy,” he said.

Mr Hall said it was critical to market WA as an affordable destination in Sydney and Melbourne, where it had long been perceived as too expensive. While the funding allocated by the WA Government was welcome, other states were investing substantially more.

One of Antony Gormley's statues on Lake Ballard near Menzies. Picture: Stephen Scourfield.

“It is very competitive but the good news is, we are a lot cheaper than we were and we have really great destinations.”

Mr Hall said Americans and Europeans were also visiting WA in bigger numbers as their economic circumstances improved. Regional WA, especially Broome and the Kimberley, tended to benefit from those “traditional” markets because they were more likely to venture further afield.

“Americans in particular haven’t been on holiday for a couple of years because things were tight but now they are looking,” he said. “Australia always been at the top of the bucket list but now their dollar is going further and WA is more attractive.”

Source: The West Australian, Katherine Fleming, July 9^th 2015