WA Business News invited some of the state’s leading tourism identities to discuss the key challenges facing the industry, and to offer a possible vision for the future of the sector in WA.
The outlook for many tourism business operators throughout Western Australia remains mixed, despite slight increases in domestic and international tourist numbers in last year.
At a recent WA Business News tourism forum, a number of prominent WA tourism industry players voiced their concerns over a number of key issues facing the industry.
What emerged were indications of an industry divided in two.
While some operators are enjoying boom times, driven by the increase in business travel on the back of the state’s thriving economy, some pure leisure tourism operators are not enjoying the same prosperity.
Best Western Emerald Hotel operator Laurie O’Meara said the hotel had recorded its highest ever occupancy and room rates for the month of February, with March already exceeding expectations.
Esplanade Hotel Fremantle managing director Marylyn New described her occupancy during February as “extraordinary”, while Broadwater chief executive Scott Cogar said his South Perth and Como properties would reach 92 per cent of capacity this month.
Australian Hotels Association executive director Bradley Woods said the experience of these hotels was a general reflection of Perth’s strong hotel market, driven by an increase in business travellers.
But Ian Dawson, owner of Australian Pinnacle Tours, said while some hospitality and tourism operators, such as hotels, airlines and hire care companies, were enjoying the corporate travel boom, operators servicing pure leisure tourists were doing it tough.
“What we’re seeing is the pure leisure operators who work solely with tourists are not enjoying the same boom times,” Mr Dawson told the luncheon roundtable.
“[The Tourism Council] is talking about boom times for tourism; that’s true of the corporate boom. But in terms of tourist visitors, the numbers are down.”
Mr Dawson said a number of pure leisure tourism operators had been forced to close down, or change their business model, as a result of the corporate travel boom.
He said the disappearance of several tour businesses in WA, including Swan Gold Tours, which switched its business model from leisure to corporate, was leaving a large gap in the leisure market.
WA Tourism Owners Group’s Manny Papadoulis said his research suggested a large proportion of leisure tourism business in regional WA were struggling, with iconic experiences such as Albany’s Whale World and the Tree Top Walk in Walpole witnessing declining tourist numbers of late.
“Every leisure operator I speak to, boat operators to Rottnest, boat operators up in Kalbarri and Geraldton, pure holiday ones, are experiencing hard times,” he said.
But Tourism Council of WA chief executive Ron Buckey said that, based on surveys of his members and accredited businesses, 78 per cent of operators said they performed better in 2006 than 2005.
The survey of about 100 tourism operators also indicated that they expected to perform better in 2007 than 2006.
“The tour operators have seen a decline, but certainly from our point of view, most operators indicated to us that they were quite happy with results,” he said.
“I think that there are some areas which are suffering, and others that are not.”
Mr Buckey said the model of people going into big tour coaches had possibly changed.
Restauranter and Tourism WA chair Kate Lamont agreed, saying her business was very strong. She said a trend was more visitors from Melbourne and Americans linked to resources.
“They’re definitely FITs [free independent travellers]. They’re not going to go on coach tours…they’re hiring a car doing their own thing,” Ms Lamont told the forum.
AHA’s Bradley Woods warned against structuring the tourism industry around the corporate market.
“As an industry we want to see small attractions and operators in the regional areas and in Perth, and attractions that people can visit, also doing well, for there to be an additional product for people to come here and stay for,” he said.
Qantas WA regional general manager Ian Gay pointed to the quality of the offering and the attractiveness of Perth as a key issue.
“The reason the Singaporeans and the Malaysians are not coming here is there’s a burst of low-cost carriers that go to places that are cheap and new and different, like Shanghai and Taipai, and Perth hasn’t changed much. It’s tired,” Mr Gay said.
