❓ The Minister for Tourism responds to a question about attracting domestic visitors to WA, particularly Rottnest Island, highlighting the addition of a third ferry service and marketing efforts in Asia. The Minister also defends the government's tourism promotion efforts against criticism.
AnsweredQoN 643Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TOURISM — DOMESTIC VISITORS
643. Mrs L.M. O'MALLEY to the
Minister for Tourism:
I firstly acknowledge the staff and
students from the gifted and talented program at Melville Senior High School
who are in the public gallery today.
I refer to the challenges facing WA's
domestic tourism industry and the strong competition from nearby destinations
in Asia and the Pacific region. What is the government doing to attract more
visitors to our iconic local attractions, particularly Rottnest Island?
643. Mrs L.M. O'MALLEY to the
Minister for Tourism:
I firstly acknowledge the staff and
students from the gifted and talented program at Melville Senior High School
who are in the public gallery today.
I refer to the challenges facing WA's
domestic tourism industry and the strong competition from nearby destinations
in Asia and the Pacific region. What is the government doing to attract more
visitors to our iconic local attractions, particularly Rottnest Island?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for her question.
In advance of answering, on behalf of the member for Cannington, I acknowledge—although
they have left, it will still get on the Hansard —the staff and
students from St Norbert College in Queens Park.
Member, that is a good question. I understand
—
Dr
M.D. Nahan : Are you going to sell the naming rights to Rottnest?
Mr
P. PAPALIA : I could not afford it!
It is a good question, member! I am
aware that tourism is attracting a little comment today, particularly, I understand,
the naming of the stadium. We have heard suggestions that there is some angst
around —
Ms
R. Saffioti : Doom!
Mr P. PAPALIA : Yes.
There is angst
around taxpayers having a windfall in the form of many, many tens of millions
of dollars that they will not have to find to fill the gap that was left by the
previous government. That is thanks to a sponsorship deal, and is a wonderful
thing.
In regards to what
we have been doing, the member may have noticed that on the weekend the Premier
and I attended the launch of the third ferry service to Rottnest Island. The
member talked about Rottnest in particular. That is an interesting topic. The
third ferry service is being provided by SeaLink. SeaLink is a huge national
company with links to 3 000 marketing agents around the world. The good thing
about SeaLink coming on board, apart from the obvious increase in berths, is
the additional trips to the island, which amount to 700 000 additional seats on
a ferry that we can market to international markets, as well as local people
and interstate visitors. That is an incredible increase. Last year, a total of
645 000 people visited the island. Potentially, we have double the capacity.
That is an incredible increase and a wonderful opportunity to market Western Australia
around the world, particularly to the Asian region, and to be able to say that
we have the capacity and we can meet that demand if we can grow it. That is a great
thing. As soon as SeaLink arrived, it drove down the price of tickets by 30 per
cent. That is another good thing that we can employ in marketing to Asia
because Malaysia and Singapore already represent the second and third greatest
source of visitation to the state. They are very comfortable coming down here
for a weekend. They can do it easily because of direct flights. We can market
to them, ''Get out to Rottnest; it's a good place to visit.''
I understand that
someone made a comment this morning about the naming rights of Perth Stadium
being sold. I am disappointed that he is not here, but the former Premier made
the claim, which I have to respond to, that Western Australia is falling off
the table—falling off the map. He said that it brings tears to his eyes
to observe that. He was asked by Geoff Hutchison: where is the evidence of Western
Australia falling off the map? His response was, ''Do you read much
about WA in the national news or globally?'' I do. Recently, we made a one-day
trip to Singapore, which included a media announcement organised by government
media advisers, which resulted in significant coverage in Singapore. In
relation to Rottnest Island, we got on the front page of The Business Times . It linked to an inside story, with a big
picture of a quokka, and the headline ''Western Australia puts out
welcome mat for S'pore, Malaysia, China''. People can read about
Western Australia in Singapore under this government. That was one publication.
There were a number of publications—about five or six in total. Media
Monitors put the value of that free publicity at $101 886. People can read
about Western Australia in the media under this government. I read in ''Inside
Cover'' that people were reading about Western Australia in Switzerland
recently as a result of my very poor attempt to get a selfie with a quokka!
Nevertheless, people were able to read about that.
The observation I would finally like to make with
respect to reading about Western Australia is that under our government, the
news is good. We are promoting the fact that there is capacity—we have
affordable, high-quality hotels and now is the time to visit. Under our
government, that is the message about Western Australia. Unfortunately, we
could not read about Western Australia under the previous government. There
were a lot of global stories but most of them revolved around the former member
for Vasse, and none of them were complimentary.
In advance of answering, on behalf of the member for Cannington, I acknowledge—although
they have left, it will still get on the Hansard —the staff and
students from St Norbert College in Queens Park.
Member, that is a good question. I understand
—
Dr
M.D. Nahan : Are you going to sell the naming rights to Rottnest?
Mr
P. PAPALIA : I could not afford it!
It is a good question, member! I am
aware that tourism is attracting a little comment today, particularly, I understand,
the naming of the stadium. We have heard suggestions that there is some angst
around —
Ms
R. Saffioti : Doom!
Mr P. PAPALIA : Yes.
There is angst
around taxpayers having a windfall in the form of many, many tens of millions
of dollars that they will not have to find to fill the gap that was left by the
previous government. That is thanks to a sponsorship deal, and is a wonderful
thing.
In regards to what
we have been doing, the member may have noticed that on the weekend the Premier
and I attended the launch of the third ferry service to Rottnest Island. The
member talked about Rottnest in particular. That is an interesting topic. The
third ferry service is being provided by SeaLink. SeaLink is a huge national
company with links to 3 000 marketing agents around the world. The good thing
about SeaLink coming on board, apart from the obvious increase in berths, is
the additional trips to the island, which amount to 700 000 additional seats on
a ferry that we can market to international markets, as well as local people
and interstate visitors. That is an incredible increase. Last year, a total of
645 000 people visited the island. Potentially, we have double the capacity.
That is an incredible increase and a wonderful opportunity to market Western Australia
around the world, particularly to the Asian region, and to be able to say that
we have the capacity and we can meet that demand if we can grow it. That is a great
thing. As soon as SeaLink arrived, it drove down the price of tickets by 30 per
cent. That is another good thing that we can employ in marketing to Asia
because Malaysia and Singapore already represent the second and third greatest
source of visitation to the state. They are very comfortable coming down here
for a weekend. They can do it easily because of direct flights. We can market
to them, ''Get out to Rottnest; it's a good place to visit.''
I understand that
someone made a comment this morning about the naming rights of Perth Stadium
being sold. I am disappointed that he is not here, but the former Premier made
the claim, which I have to respond to, that Western Australia is falling off
the table—falling off the map. He said that it brings tears to his eyes
to observe that. He was asked by Geoff Hutchison: where is the evidence of Western
Australia falling off the map? His response was, ''Do you read much
about WA in the national news or globally?'' I do. Recently, we made a one-day
trip to Singapore, which included a media announcement organised by government
media advisers, which resulted in significant coverage in Singapore. In
relation to Rottnest Island, we got on the front page of The Business Times . It linked to an inside story, with a big
picture of a quokka, and the headline ''Western Australia puts out
welcome mat for S'pore, Malaysia, China''. People can read about
Western Australia in Singapore under this government. That was one publication.
There were a number of publications—about five or six in total. Media
Monitors put the value of that free publicity at $101 886. People can read
about Western Australia in the media under this government. I read in ''Inside
Cover'' that people were reading about Western Australia in Switzerland
recently as a result of my very poor attempt to get a selfie with a quokka!
Nevertheless, people were able to read about that.
The observation I would finally like to make with
respect to reading about Western Australia is that under our government, the
news is good. We are promoting the fact that there is capacity—we have
affordable, high-quality hotels and now is the time to visit. Under our
government, that is the message about Western Australia. Unfortunately, we
could not read about Western Australia under the previous government. There
were a lot of global stories but most of them revolved around the former member
for Vasse, and none of them were complimentary.
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