❓ The Minister for Tourism provides an update on WA's tourism performance, highlighting positive growth in visitor numbers and the economic impact of events like the golf tournament and Ironman. They also acknowledge the success of a charity cycling event.
AnsweredQoN 617Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TOURISM —
GOLF AND IRONMAN EVENTS
617. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for Tourism:
I understand that Tourism Research Australia recently
released its 2012 report on the state of the nation's tourism industry.
Can the minister update the house on how Western Australia is performing and
what contribution the golf and ironman events held in Perth and Mandurah over
the weekend have made to this situation?
GOLF AND IRONMAN EVENTS
617. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for Tourism:
I understand that Tourism Research Australia recently
released its 2012 report on the state of the nation's tourism industry.
Can the minister update the house on how Western Australia is performing and
what contribution the golf and ironman events held in Perth and Mandurah over
the weekend have made to this situation?
AnswerView source ↗
Before I answer, I welcome students and the deputy principal
from Glencoe Primary School, who are sitting in the Speaker's gallery.
Interestingly, this is the first time that both the Premier and I have heard a
Speaker from overseas speaking in our Parliament, which was welcome and great
for the students to witness.
I thank the member for her question. In response to the
question, there are two parts to it. One refers to events on the weekend and
the other refers to tourist visitor numbers. I am pleased to say that the
Tourism Research Australia report, which has just been released, does show a
very good improvement in tourist numbers in Western Australia. Since the global
financial crisis, there has been a decline in tourism numbers across Australia,
but that has been steadily picking up. For international visitor numbers in
Western Australia, there has been a 2.5 per cent increase compared with a
national growth rate of only 1.4 per cent. Their stay of nights are up by 14 per
cent and their spend is up by $2 billion, which is a 10 per cent increase in
spend. Intrastate visitor numbers grew by 7.4 per cent, with the number of
nights up by nine per cent. Interstate visitors increased by 5.3 per cent while
interstate business visitors increased by 3.8 per cent. There are increased
numbers across the areas, particularly with intrastate visitors—that
is, people in Perth who are being encouraged to get out into the regions to
support our tourism industry, which is under difficulty at present—numbers
are up by 15 per cent compared with a national growth of only nine per cent,
and they spent 19 million nights, which is up nearly 15 per cent. Overall, the
number of tourists in Western Australia is steadily growing. A lot of effort
has been put in by this government having events in the city, and the $10 million
from royalties for regions each year has meant a huge number of events across
the country. We recently announced a $7.9 million increase through royalties
for regions funding in marketing to allow us to make that even stronger.
Two major events were held leading up to the weekend. I refer
to the international golf tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club and the
70.3, which is half an ironman, triathlon in Mandurah. Both were fantastic
events. The feedback has been absolutely amazing. Lake Karrinyup Country Club
deserves a lot of credit for the quality of its course. There have been lots of
comments by people from all sorts of areas about how good a course it was to
play on, the quality of the organisation of the event and how much they enjoyed
being here. So I think we will get a lot back next year, and the strength of
this tournament will grow progressively year in, year out. It is the first year
we have held it, and it went off extremely well. I think it will go from
strength to strength, as will the ironman competition I was at on Sunday to
hand out the prizes. Not just national and international competitors were at
that event. I was telling the students over lunch, when we were talking about
how active they were and the things they were doing for sport, that the
youngest child competing in this event was seven years old—obviously
not competing in the main part of the event. However, there were whole
components of the event for ordinary people either to compete in on their own—different
distances, of course—or to join up and form a team and go in the event.
It has been a fantastic weekend of events.
Before I sit down, I pass on congratulations. I am pretty
proud of my daughter. She had her third child just six months ago and was in
the 200-kilometre cycle event to Pinjarra. A lot of people were there—I
think 1 400—and they raised something like $4.6 million for research. I
just want to say what a great effort that was.
from Glencoe Primary School, who are sitting in the Speaker's gallery.
Interestingly, this is the first time that both the Premier and I have heard a
Speaker from overseas speaking in our Parliament, which was welcome and great
for the students to witness.
I thank the member for her question. In response to the
question, there are two parts to it. One refers to events on the weekend and
the other refers to tourist visitor numbers. I am pleased to say that the
Tourism Research Australia report, which has just been released, does show a
very good improvement in tourist numbers in Western Australia. Since the global
financial crisis, there has been a decline in tourism numbers across Australia,
but that has been steadily picking up. For international visitor numbers in
Western Australia, there has been a 2.5 per cent increase compared with a
national growth rate of only 1.4 per cent. Their stay of nights are up by 14 per
cent and their spend is up by $2 billion, which is a 10 per cent increase in
spend. Intrastate visitor numbers grew by 7.4 per cent, with the number of
nights up by nine per cent. Interstate visitors increased by 5.3 per cent while
interstate business visitors increased by 3.8 per cent. There are increased
numbers across the areas, particularly with intrastate visitors—that
is, people in Perth who are being encouraged to get out into the regions to
support our tourism industry, which is under difficulty at present—numbers
are up by 15 per cent compared with a national growth of only nine per cent,
and they spent 19 million nights, which is up nearly 15 per cent. Overall, the
number of tourists in Western Australia is steadily growing. A lot of effort
has been put in by this government having events in the city, and the $10 million
from royalties for regions each year has meant a huge number of events across
the country. We recently announced a $7.9 million increase through royalties
for regions funding in marketing to allow us to make that even stronger.
Two major events were held leading up to the weekend. I refer
to the international golf tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club and the
70.3, which is half an ironman, triathlon in Mandurah. Both were fantastic
events. The feedback has been absolutely amazing. Lake Karrinyup Country Club
deserves a lot of credit for the quality of its course. There have been lots of
comments by people from all sorts of areas about how good a course it was to
play on, the quality of the organisation of the event and how much they enjoyed
being here. So I think we will get a lot back next year, and the strength of
this tournament will grow progressively year in, year out. It is the first year
we have held it, and it went off extremely well. I think it will go from
strength to strength, as will the ironman competition I was at on Sunday to
hand out the prizes. Not just national and international competitors were at
that event. I was telling the students over lunch, when we were talking about
how active they were and the things they were doing for sport, that the
youngest child competing in this event was seven years old—obviously
not competing in the main part of the event. However, there were whole
components of the event for ordinary people either to compete in on their own—different
distances, of course—or to join up and form a team and go in the event.
It has been a fantastic weekend of events.
Before I sit down, I pass on congratulations. I am pretty
proud of my daughter. She had her third child just six months ago and was in
the 200-kilometre cycle event to Pinjarra. A lot of people were there—I
think 1 400—and they raised something like $4.6 million for research. I
just want to say what a great effort that was.
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