WA tourism set for boom

WESTERN Australia is gearing up to capitalise upon renewed demand for tourism, with billions being invested in infrastructure, including hotels, tourist precincts, aviation services and sporting events.

Speaking at the TravelManagers conference last weekend, Tourism Western Australia Chairman Nathan Harding said that “Perth is undergoing a remarkable transformation, it’s a once-in-ahundred-years transformation with billions of dollars, changing the face of Perth”.

Harding said hotel projects including the Ritz Carlton (TD

09 Aug) and DoubleTree by Hilton (TD 21 Jan) were adding thousands of new rooms with an abundance of new bars and restaurants helping to reinvent Perth and making it the “newest and coolest destination”.

Ensuring the spread of tourist dollars beyond Perth, Harding spoke of “a billion dollars being invested into Fremantle with half a billion dollars being invested into a new museum.

“The new [Federal] Government recognised this opportunity and provided Tourism WA with $500 million of funding over the next five years and we’ve been busily working through our two-year action plan,” he said.

“The results over the last 12 months have seen our biggest tourism year ever approaching nearly three million out-of-state visitors and the strongest growth of any state or territory.”

Crucial to support the growth has been the development of new flight routes, with Harding speaking of the new service between Kununurra in the East Kimberley and Melbourne (TD

27 May) as well as a new route between Broome and Singapore.

“We’re also working on Melbourne to Margaret River,” he said, with “lots of co-op marketing with the airlines to drive great deals”.

Sporting events have been a great success for the west with AFL tourism adding 30,000 interstate visitors last year, along with other events including the State of Origin and the recent visit of Manchester United adding 40,000 visitors in total.