New golf concept to leverage tourist growth

A new-format international golf tournament will make its debut in Western Australia early next year, as the state government seeks to capitalise on rising interstate tourism interest.

Premier and Tourism Minister Colin Barnett today announced the World Super 6 Tournament would take place at Lake Karrinyup in February next year, the latest initiative designed to boost visitation to WA.

The tournament will introduce a new format to professional golf, with the combination of a traditional 72-hole format with a knockout round on the last day.

At the completion of 56 holes, the field will be reduced to 24 players, who will then compete in a series of six-hole knockout matches.

PGA of Australia chief executive Brian Thorburn said he expected the format would change the way people view golf.

"Cricket has Twenty20, Netball has Fast5, Rugby Union has Rugby7s and now golf has the World Super 6 Perth,” he said.

The tournament will become part of the PGA tour of Australasia and Europe. 

Mr Barnett said he expected the tournament would appeal to all golfers. 

"Golf is very popular throughout the world, and has a high appeal for many people in some of our top tourism markets, including Singapore, China, Malaysia and the United Kingdom," he said.

The tournament is the latest in a range of initiatives unveiled recently by the state government as it seeks to increase total tourist spending in WA to $12 billion by 2020.

WA is already firming as a holiday destination for eastern states residents, with the latest national visitors survey by Tourism Research Australia showing interstate visitors to WA rose by 17 per cent over the past year, the second fastest growth in the nation and on par with the increase in visits to the ACT.

Visitor growth in WA was only trumped by the Northern Territory, where domestic visits increased by 36 per cent.

Tourism Research Australia said the 9.3 million visitors to WA from other states in the year to the end of June spent $7.2 billion, 15 per cent more than the previous 12 months.

While total visitor spending in WA was fewer than half of the $16.4 billion spent in NSW, WA only received around a third of the visits NSW did (28.9 million).

Average visitor spending in WA's north-west was the second-highest among tourism regions nationally at $1,145 per trip, with only those heading to Darwin spending more.

Visitors to Perth spent an average of $804/trip, while the average spend in the South West was $521/trip.

The figures also showed WA residents were holidaying at home more, with the number of intrastate visits rising by 16.6 per cent, while spending rose 24 per cent to $4 billion.

Australian Hotels Association WA chief executive Bradley Woods said new marketing campaigns by Tourism WA would help to build on the positive momentum.

“Destination marketing for WA is crucial if we are going to see a sustained growth in visitor numbers into the future,” he said.

“More work is needed to encourage interstate visitors to choose WA as their holiday destination.”