Western Australia the most popular tourist destination

27/4/02
Western Australia has outstripped every other State as the most popular natural tourist destination for domestic visitors in 2001, Tourism Minister Clive Brown said today.
Mr Brown said the Bureau of Tourism Research National Visitor Survey (for the 12 months to December 2001) showed that more than 6.5million intrastate and interstate tourists travelled to Perth and regional WA.
"The survey shows a six per cent increase on the previous year, an extra 200,000 visitors compared to 2000," he said.
"This is despite the number of interstate visitors falling by 156,000, attributed to the combined effects of September 11 and the grounding of Ansett."
Mr Brown said the State Government, in conjunction with the tourism industry, had acted quickly to counter the impact on tourism of these devastating events.
"The State Government made an additional $5million available to the tourism industry to market and promote tourism within and to WA," he said.
"The survey results provide an early indication that our swift response to these events and the subsequent marketing campaigns designed to encourage Western Australians to travel within WA have been successful."
The survey showed that the number of domestic visitors was at its highest level since September 1999.
Perth had the greatest number of domestic visitors, followed by the South-West.
In regional areas, the Pilbara Region saw the biggest increase of domestic visitor numbers, with a 58.5 per cent increase in 2001 to 355,000 visitors, closely followed by the south-east of the State with a 54.5 per cent increase.
Behind WA, New South Wales recorded the next best results with 1.7 per cent and Queensland followed with a 1.1 per cent growth rate.
The results also indicated WA had increased its share of the overall State visitor market, gaining 8.6 per cent of the market, up from 8.2 per cent in 2000.
The biggest increase was in the intrastate market, up by 355,000 visitors compared with 2000.
Mr Brown said the results were extremely encouraging.
WA Tourism Commission advertising campaigns, in conjunction with national campaigns run by See Australia, were enticing people to firstly take a holiday and secondly to travel within their own State.
"The results affirm the success of the State Government's efforts to promote WA," the Minister said.
Minister's office: 9222 9699