Western Australia leading the nation in international visitor recovery

Recently released data from Tourism Research Australia shows Western Australia achieved its highest ever annual visitor spend on record, with $14 billion spent in the WA economy by travellers in 2022.

Western Australia's tourism recovery has led to a spending increase of $3.6 billion compared with 2021, and $500 million more than the previous record in 2019 before the pandemic.

Almost half of the record spend - about $6.8 billion - was injected into the regional WA economy. This included $2.84 billion in the South-West, $1.75 billion in the North-West, almost $1.1 billion in the Coral Coast and $1 billion in Golden Outback.

Interstate visitors spent $123 million more in Western Australia in 2022 than in 2019, and from April to December 2022, Western Australia was the top-performing state for growth in interstate leisure visitors, which was up 13% compared with 2019.

Western Australia was also a standout in bringing back international visitors, with nearly 380,000 overseas visitors coming to the state from April - December 2022. Half of Western Australia's international visitors came from the State's top four global markets - the United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand and India.

The India market saw the strongest recovery, with visitor numbers just 5% behind pre-COVID levels, increasing its rank to the 4th top market from 9th in April - December 2019.

Tourism Research Australia's International and National Visitor Survey results are the official sources of visitor statistics for Australia.

Welcoming the findings, Western Australian Tourism Minister, Roger Cook enthused "It is fantastic that we have set a new record of $14 billion for tourism spending. This is a huge injection into the WA economy, creating jobs and revenue right across the state. But we have ambitions to do much, much more.

"These results show just how much momentum we have as a sought after tourism destination. WA is one of the hottest tourism spots in the world at the moment.

"WA is leading the nation in recovery of both international and interstate visitors since opening its borders just over a year ago. We've put a huge focus on reinvigorating our tourism industry over the past year and we're delighted to see that all our efforts are paying off.

"With our new global tourism brand Walking On A Dream, an incredible line up of major events, 13 new direct flights to Perth and huge developments in our incredible natural assets and attractions, the eyes of the world are on Western Australia.”

Image. Western Australia’s global tourism brand Walking On A Dream. Credit Tourism WA