More than 40,000 less people visited Western Australia from the eastern states for a holiday over the past year, prompting industry calls for more funding and support from the state government.
Tourism Research Australia’s national visitor survey, released today, found interstate visitors to WA declined by 12.3 per cent over the 12 months to the end of March.
Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall said WA would continue to lose market share unless the government invested in a “solid marketing campaign”.
Mr Hall said there were no funds allocated for tourism marketing in last month’s state budget.
“We must promote WA into Sydney and Melbourne now or the industry could be facing the worst summer holiday period it has ever experienced,” Mr Hall said in a statement.
More West Australians, however, are holidaying at home, with the survey revealing an 8.1 per cent increase in intrastate tourism.
“The increase in intrastate visitors over the past year is fantastic and has helped the industry stay afloat,” Mr Hall said.
“But the reality for tourism businesses is that we have not returned to pre-GFC levels of local intrastate tourism” said Mr Hall.
