WA tourism continues to slide

The latest international tourism statistics show a further decline for Western Australia despite positive results for the national market.

International tourism spending fell 8.3 per cent to $2.28 billion in the year to March, while visitor nights dropped 6.1 per cent, according to data from Tourism Research Australia.

There was a slight increase in visitors, with 967,000 overseas tourists making the trip to WA, up from 957,000 one year ago.

Across the country there was a 7.5 per cent increase in international visitation, while total nights increased 2.8 per cent and spending rose 6.7 per cent.

The Northern Territory (-12 per cent) was the only other region to suffer a decline in spending.

Premier Mark McGowan said the figures could be a reflection of falling hotel prices.  

“That over time is actually going to attract far more people to Western Australia,” he said.

Shadow tourism minister Libby Mettam said tourism needed a dedicated chief executive.

“The McGowan government needs to move quickly to reverse the machinery of government changes that downgraded the standalone status of the Department of Tourism and resulted in an exodus of experience and expert personnel,” she said.

“That international visitor spend has increased in in every other state and there has been an increase of 6 per cent nationally, while international visitor spend in WA dropped by 8 per cent shows the government needs to do more.

“South Australia saw an increase in international visitor spend of 10 per cent while Tasmania saw an increase of 20 per cent – these figures show the McGowan government has dropped the ball in this important sector.”

The previous release from TRA showed overseas tourism spending dropped 5 per cent to $2.3 billion for the year to December in WA, along with a 1 per cent decline in visitors to about 946,000.