WA needs to up tourism game

Western Australia’s tourism industry is falling behind the rest of the country, with figures today revealing WA experienced the lowest growth in international visitors last year.

In 2015, the number of international visitors to WA grew by 2.68 per cent, the lowest increase of any state, while spending by international visitors fell by 4.72 per cent, a survey conducted by Tourism Research Australia found.

This compares with a national increase in international visitors by 7.89 per cent, while expenditure in most other states grew by more than 18 per cent.

“Visitor spending is down (in WA) because our hotels and hospitality have become much cheaper,” Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall said.

“This makes WA more competitive, but we’ve got to turn this into a major increase in visitor numbers.

“Now is the time for government to boost investment in promoting WA as an affordable destination.”

Mr Hall said WA needed to ramp up its transition from resources to service industries such as tourism, and warned that every state in Australia was diversifying its economy and investing more in the sector.

“Western Australia is in competition with every other Australian destination,” he said.

“Other states are enjoying a tourism boom due to the low Australian dollar – however WA is lagging behind.”