❓ A parliamentary question regarding the McGowan government's two-year tourism action plan and its impact on visitor numbers and the WA economy. The Minister's answer highlights record visitor numbers and spending, attributing it to the plan's success.
AnsweredQoN 598Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TOURISM — TWO-YEAR
ACTION PLAN
598. Mr S.A. MILLMAN to the Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to supporting small businesses and creating
jobs through its record investment in tourism and the implementation of its
two-year action plan. Can the minister advise the house how this government's
efforts have attracted a record number of holiday-makers to Western Australia
and can the minister outline to the house what this record number of tourists
has meant for the WA economy?
ACTION PLAN
598. Mr S.A. MILLMAN to the Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to supporting small businesses and creating
jobs through its record investment in tourism and the implementation of its
two-year action plan. Can the minister advise the house how this government's
efforts have attracted a record number of holiday-makers to Western Australia
and can the minister outline to the house what this record number of tourists
has meant for the WA economy?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for his
well-delivered question! We could never get enough good numbers around tourism,
but I was very happy to hear other good news about tourism in the member's
electorate—the opening of a new wine bar and restaurant, Le Rebelle. It
is great to see a new small business opening on Beaufort Street under the much
more flexible and supportive regime that the McGowan government implemented a couple
of years ago. Speaking of numbers, that accords with the fact there are now
more small businesses in Western Australia than there were last year and the
year before and the year before that, all the way back to 2014, according to
data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I thank the member for his
optimism—that is a good thing. There is not much of it from the other
side of the chamber.
With respect to tourism numbers, I was
delighted to see payback returned for the taxpayers of Western Australia— a return in the form of visitor numbers in direct
response to the two-year action plan that was launched a little over a year
ago, in 2018. The latest data for the 12 months to March this year confirmed that,
looking at the National Visitor Survey and the International Visitor Survey
combined, there were a record-breaking 2.66 million out-of-state visitors to Western
Australia up until the year ending March 2019. Spending by these visitors
increased by 7.6 per cent to $3.9 billion. That is another record spend. WA had
11.1 million international and domestic overnight visitors, who, together with
daytrippers, spent $10.1 billion in the state. Good news for the National Party—which
is always in search of good news; it does not get much inside its own ranks!—46
per cent of that record spend was in the regions. That is an extraordinary
return.
The survey showed that growing
numbers of Western Australians are holidaying at home, too. It is not our main
focus because I really want to grow outside visitation—the visitors
from outside the state so we get an added economy; new people coming in and
spending money. Local people are holidaying at home in record numbers. That
figure increased by 16.3 per cent to 3.6 million, and their spend was up 21.7 per
cent to $2.2 billion. Western Australians are responding to holidaying at home,
the road trip campaign and other campaigns like the affordable flights to
Broome, Exmouth, Albany, Esperance, Monkey Mia and Carnarvon, and it is
working. All of the state's regions have recorded, year on year,
increases in domestic overnight visitors. The two-year action plan is working.
There is more to be done. The good news is that, on 1 September, as part of the
two-year action plan to go after new direct routes, All Nippon Airways will
commence flights seven days a week for the really valuable Japanese tourism
market. It is a great opportunity that was lost under the previous government.
I do not know whether the Leader of the Opposition was the minister then, but
maybe. In the six and a half years during which I have had responsibility for talking about tourism on behalf of the Western
Australian Labor Party, I have had six opponents. I now have a new
critic of tourism, a new pessimist, a new person responsible for talking down
tourism and attacking the City of Perth. I am waiting for her question, but I do
not expect her to be there long; I expect there to be a leadership change at
the end of the year, and we might be up to number seven.
well-delivered question! We could never get enough good numbers around tourism,
but I was very happy to hear other good news about tourism in the member's
electorate—the opening of a new wine bar and restaurant, Le Rebelle. It
is great to see a new small business opening on Beaufort Street under the much
more flexible and supportive regime that the McGowan government implemented a couple
of years ago. Speaking of numbers, that accords with the fact there are now
more small businesses in Western Australia than there were last year and the
year before and the year before that, all the way back to 2014, according to
data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I thank the member for his
optimism—that is a good thing. There is not much of it from the other
side of the chamber.
With respect to tourism numbers, I was
delighted to see payback returned for the taxpayers of Western Australia— a return in the form of visitor numbers in direct
response to the two-year action plan that was launched a little over a year
ago, in 2018. The latest data for the 12 months to March this year confirmed that,
looking at the National Visitor Survey and the International Visitor Survey
combined, there were a record-breaking 2.66 million out-of-state visitors to Western
Australia up until the year ending March 2019. Spending by these visitors
increased by 7.6 per cent to $3.9 billion. That is another record spend. WA had
11.1 million international and domestic overnight visitors, who, together with
daytrippers, spent $10.1 billion in the state. Good news for the National Party—which
is always in search of good news; it does not get much inside its own ranks!—46
per cent of that record spend was in the regions. That is an extraordinary
return.
The survey showed that growing
numbers of Western Australians are holidaying at home, too. It is not our main
focus because I really want to grow outside visitation—the visitors
from outside the state so we get an added economy; new people coming in and
spending money. Local people are holidaying at home in record numbers. That
figure increased by 16.3 per cent to 3.6 million, and their spend was up 21.7 per
cent to $2.2 billion. Western Australians are responding to holidaying at home,
the road trip campaign and other campaigns like the affordable flights to
Broome, Exmouth, Albany, Esperance, Monkey Mia and Carnarvon, and it is
working. All of the state's regions have recorded, year on year,
increases in domestic overnight visitors. The two-year action plan is working.
There is more to be done. The good news is that, on 1 September, as part of the
two-year action plan to go after new direct routes, All Nippon Airways will
commence flights seven days a week for the really valuable Japanese tourism
market. It is a great opportunity that was lost under the previous government.
I do not know whether the Leader of the Opposition was the minister then, but
maybe. In the six and a half years during which I have had responsibility for talking about tourism on behalf of the Western
Australian Labor Party, I have had six opponents. I now have a new
critic of tourism, a new pessimist, a new person responsible for talking down
tourism and attacking the City of Perth. I am waiting for her question, but I do
not expect her to be there long; I expect there to be a leadership change at
the end of the year, and we might be up to number seven.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.