❓ The Minister for Tourism responds to a question about the economic and social benefits of major events like the High Voltage festival, highlighting past successes and future opportunities to boost WA's tourism and economy.
AnsweredQoN 122Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
MAJOR EVENTS
122. Ms K.E. GIDDENS to the Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's tourism strategy to attract visitors to Western Australia.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house how facilitating exclusive major events in WA,
such as the upcoming High Voltage festival in Fremantle, can provide
significant economic and social benefits?
(2) Can the minister advise the house what these major
events mean for local businesses and tourism operators?
122. Ms K.E. GIDDENS to the Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's tourism strategy to attract visitors to Western Australia.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house how facilitating exclusive major events in WA,
such as the upcoming High Voltage festival in Fremantle, can provide
significant economic and social benefits?
(2) Can the minister advise the house what these major
events mean for local businesses and tourism operators?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
member for the question.
(1)–(2) We can all cast our minds back to 2020—it
seems a lifetime ago—when we all celebrated the Highway to Hell as part of Perth Festival. It was an incredible event—one of
the few events at which we could get the Premier in a black T-shirt, and a great opportunity to celebrate the
rock'n'roll highway of Canning Highway. It was a major
event. It was awarded the best cultural event at the 2020 Australian Event
Awards with 150 000 people from overseas and
interstate, and, of course, just a few Western Australians as well, who
injected over $6 million into the Western Australian economy, generating
worldwide interest to our great state. Such was the impact of this event
that the Premier almost renamed Canning Highway ''Bon Scott Highway''.
As the Minister for Culture and the Arts
is often to observe in this place, we cannot underestimate the importance of
these types of world-class, homegrown events continuing, particularly in the
culture and arts space, to promote Western Australian tourism and the Western Australian
economy more broadly.
On the weekend, I had the pleasure of
joining a number of members of Parliament, including the members for Bicton and Fremantle, to announce the line-up
for this year's major rock'n'roll festival, the High
Voltage festival, which will be held on 7 May. It is another opportunity
to shine a light on Western Australia's great rock'n'roll
heritage, particularly through the life of Bon Scott and AC/DC more generally,
but also to foster and grow our own cultural
and creative industries. By continuing to grow these world-class events ,
we have the opportunity to continue to attract more people to the state,
showcase Western Australia and encourage people to explore everything that Western
Australia has to offer.
We know that events play an important
role as part of this economy. The Premier made that observation a short while
ago. We had Ed Sheeran here at the weekend and over 73 000 people attended that
event. Imagine a situation in which we have Rod Stewart and Cyndi Lauper going
head to head against Bj�rk! We are changing the pub conversations. It is no
longer about whether one supports the Dockers or the Eagles; it is about
whether one supports Bj�rk or Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart! This continues to
make Western Australia a great place to live and continues to make sure that we
drive our hospitality and tourism venues right across the state. The Ultimate
Fighting Championship is a great example of an event that brings people into
the state—we see people come in and spend their dollars in our cafes,
pubs, clubs and hotels—and continues to drive the diversity of our
economy through a growing tourism calendar. We want to continue to make sure
that we can grow these homegrown events. We have seen the success of things
like the Vivid Sydney festival and Hobart's Dark Mofo festival. We want
to continue to make sure we can have these
homegrown events that are organically developed within Western Australia and
that draw upon our great cultural and artistic history and heritage, and
make sure that we can continue to celebrate everything
that is Western Australia. This is about diversifying our economy, growing our
tourism industry and making sure that Western Australians—prior
to COVID, over 100 000 of them enjoyed working in our tourism industry—have
the great jobs of tourism into the future so that we can continue to bring back
this great industry and continue to make Perth and, of course, our entire state
of Western Australia a great place to live, work and play.
member for the question.
(1)–(2) We can all cast our minds back to 2020—it
seems a lifetime ago—when we all celebrated the Highway to Hell as part of Perth Festival. It was an incredible event—one of
the few events at which we could get the Premier in a black T-shirt, and a great opportunity to celebrate the
rock'n'roll highway of Canning Highway. It was a major
event. It was awarded the best cultural event at the 2020 Australian Event
Awards with 150 000 people from overseas and
interstate, and, of course, just a few Western Australians as well, who
injected over $6 million into the Western Australian economy, generating
worldwide interest to our great state. Such was the impact of this event
that the Premier almost renamed Canning Highway ''Bon Scott Highway''.
As the Minister for Culture and the Arts
is often to observe in this place, we cannot underestimate the importance of
these types of world-class, homegrown events continuing, particularly in the
culture and arts space, to promote Western Australian tourism and the Western Australian
economy more broadly.
On the weekend, I had the pleasure of
joining a number of members of Parliament, including the members for Bicton and Fremantle, to announce the line-up
for this year's major rock'n'roll festival, the High
Voltage festival, which will be held on 7 May. It is another opportunity
to shine a light on Western Australia's great rock'n'roll
heritage, particularly through the life of Bon Scott and AC/DC more generally,
but also to foster and grow our own cultural
and creative industries. By continuing to grow these world-class events ,
we have the opportunity to continue to attract more people to the state,
showcase Western Australia and encourage people to explore everything that Western
Australia has to offer.
We know that events play an important
role as part of this economy. The Premier made that observation a short while
ago. We had Ed Sheeran here at the weekend and over 73 000 people attended that
event. Imagine a situation in which we have Rod Stewart and Cyndi Lauper going
head to head against Bj�rk! We are changing the pub conversations. It is no
longer about whether one supports the Dockers or the Eagles; it is about
whether one supports Bj�rk or Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart! This continues to
make Western Australia a great place to live and continues to make sure that we
drive our hospitality and tourism venues right across the state. The Ultimate
Fighting Championship is a great example of an event that brings people into
the state—we see people come in and spend their dollars in our cafes,
pubs, clubs and hotels—and continues to drive the diversity of our
economy through a growing tourism calendar. We want to continue to make sure
that we can grow these homegrown events. We have seen the success of things
like the Vivid Sydney festival and Hobart's Dark Mofo festival. We want
to continue to make sure we can have these
homegrown events that are organically developed within Western Australia and
that draw upon our great cultural and artistic history and heritage, and
make sure that we can continue to celebrate everything
that is Western Australia. This is about diversifying our economy, growing our
tourism industry and making sure that Western Australians—prior
to COVID, over 100 000 of them enjoyed working in our tourism industry—have
the great jobs of tourism into the future so that we can continue to bring back
this great industry and continue to make Perth and, of course, our entire state
of Western Australia a great place to live, work and play.
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