Western Australia continues to lose market share when it comes to interstate visitor numbers, with the latest figures released today showing visitors to WA fell by 12 per cent in the 12 months to June 2017.
The latest figures from the National Visitor Survey show that Western Australia was the only State to experience a decline in interstate visitors during 2016-17, with the 12 per cent reduction far behind the national average growth of 3.8 per cent.
“The latest figures show that Western Australia is losing visitors and market share from our largest market, which is interstate holidaymakers,” Tourism Council WA CEO Evan Hall said.
“The results make it clear that other States across Australia are far better at promoting themselves as destinations for holidaymakers by comparison with Western Australia.”
Mr Hall said it was critical that the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation was successful in recovering market share in interstate leisure visitors and international students, or WA would continue to bleed business and jobs to other States.
“The State Government has recently announced it will deliver on its election commitment of $85 million per annum over five years for tourism marketing and events – it is imperative that this funding is used to deliver effective marketing and events that will bring people to Western Australia and create jobs,” Mr Hall said.
The States which traditionally perform well when it comes to domestic tourism, such as Queensland and Tasmania, have specialised tourism marketing organisations solely focused on increasing visitation and jobs.
“Other States have developed aggressive, independent, commercially-savvy marketing arms which are poaching Western Australia’s visitors,” Mr Hall said.