Western Australia’s tourism industry has been doing it tough for a while now but new figures show positive signs, with the first increase in interstate visitors in two years.
Jusrt-released data shows the total number of interstate visitors in the 12 months to end of March has risen by 3.6%, and the total number of visitors jumped by 4.8% to 1.4 million. However, the amount of money they spent is down on last year.
Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said the figures were encouraging … but there was a long way to go.
“We have adopted a two-year action plan that we believe will make a difference and attract more tourists to WA,” he said. “This has included re-opening our office in Sydney and launching specific marketing campaigns in the eastern states, among many other things.”
But Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall said more visitors needed to be persuaded to venture out into the WA regions.
“Visitors generally stay longer if they travel to regional areas,” he said. “It’s important that our marketing campaigns are not too narrowly focused and also direct tourists to some of our tremendous regional attractions.”
Last year, a report by the auditor-general on the State Government’s key ‘Strategy for Tourism in WA 2020’ policy said a perception that the state was ‘too far away’ and ‘too expensive’ was frightening people off.
A lot of grey nomads have certainly commented on the high costs of an extended trip in the west … and not just of the fuel needed to cover the huge distances involved.
Meredith has done two three-month trips to WA in the past four years, one concentrating mainly on the north and the other concentrating more on the south.
“They were wonderful trips and we loved WA and really would like to go back again,” she said. “But it is expensive, with caravan parks generally at least $10 a night more than in the east for a similar standard and meals out and other things much more expensive.”
I think whilst yes, caravan parks and meals out are generally more than the Eastern states, people need to understand that in WA the towns are at a greater distance between each other. This creates the issue that the price of fuel, power and all other essential services cost a far greater amount to get to these places. On the Eastern seaboard for instance you have towns every 30 – 50 kms in the far reaches of WA you have 500 – 700 kms. The problem that is going to be created if we do not support these places, when we think, yeah I have saved enough to visit these places then these places will be closed and you may find yourself up the proverbial without a paddle. We do not have to spend fortunes in these places but a cup of coffee here and a sandwich there can make all the difference. All out there enjoy your travels and do so safely, hope to see you out there on the road.
Shane and Mary
I agree 100% with Shane, A lot more could be dome to attract visitors to some of the Regional towns, we recently travelled through the Northern Wheatbelt of WA and found that many towns were struggling to survive, they are doing what they can to attract the visitors but with limited assistance from State finance, many are just hanging in there !!