Western Australia recorded its highest-ever number of international holidaymakers in 2018, but total spending from international visitors declined slightly over the year, as fewer people took working holidays or visited friends and relatives in the state, according to Tourism Research Australia.
TRA’s latest data showed the total number of international visitors grew by 2.1 per cent to 963,800 in 2018, with holidaymakers growing 12.6 per cent to 487,100.
Total spending by visitors declined by 0.5 per cent to $2.1 billion, however those holiday makers spent 8.2 per cent more than their 2017 counterparts in WA in 2018.
In comparison to other states, WA had the largest gains in visitation for holidays and holiday spending.
Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said the statistics were encouraging, particularly in the context of the state government’s increased spending on destination marketing.
Mr Papalia recently announced an additional $12 million in funding to add to a $45 million annual budget for Tourism WA’s marketing activities.
“We’re starting to see improvement, so now is the perfect time to strengthen our international marketing efforts to entice more overseas holiday-makers from key markets to explore our state,” Mr Papalia said.
Japanese visitors exhibited the strongest growth, growing by 12.6 per cent, while Indian visitors rose by 11 per cent.
Chinese visitors were the biggest-spending in WA in 2018, despite the total spending falling 10.4 per cent to $259 million.
