Western Australia needs new visitor attractions and tourism accommodation

In the wake of Tourism Research Australia’s latest investment report, Tourism Council WA is calling for investment in new attractions and tourist accommodation in Western Australia.

Despite rising confidence in the visitor economy shown in the latest annual Tourism Investment Monitor from Tourism Research Australia (TRA), Tourism Council WA Chief Executive Evan Hall has expressed concern that Western Australia had the lowest level of investment in new tourism accommodation and new attractions of any state in 2022/23.

Hall explained “we have major shortages of tourist accommodation in regional WA, which is pushing out tourists to other States which are investing in new accommodation.

“Many regional towns are at capacity and are turning away tourists and, in turn, the jobs that they create. Western Australia’s stock of regional accommodation is ageing, and we’ve had very little new investment over the past two decades.”

Hall said Western Australia needed to invest in new accommodation that not only created more space for Western Australians and tourists, but also brought greater staff housing capacity, and greater energy efficiency and sustainability.

Adding that Western Australia only had $1.4 billion in the investment pipeline for the arts, recreations, and other attractions, compared with $8.5 billion in Queensland, and which was even less than States such as Tasmania were investing Hall noted “not only is Western Australia not investing in new natural and cultural attractions like other states are, but we are also seeing existing public attractions in National Parks close down.

“We’ve seen a lot of attractions shut down recently such as Penguin Island Discovery Centre and the Gloucester Tree.”

Going on to say that the tourism industry wanted to create new experiences but kept being knocked back due to excessive red tape in the approval process, Hall went on to say “we would like to see tourism investment included in a streamlined investment process through the Office of the Coordinator General, as announced by the Premier in December 2023.”

Released last week, the annual Tourism Investment Monitor found Western Australia was tied with Tasmania for the lowest level of investment, $700 million, in new tourism accommodation.

Image: Tourism Council WA's 2016 concept for a Perth Cable Car.