More Western Australians are holidaying at home than ever before according to the latest quarterly National Visitor Survey figures released today by Tourism Research Australia.

Tourism Minister Kim Hames said domestic or intrastate visitors spent half a billion more in 2014-15 than in the previous year, supporting local tourism, retail and hospitality businesses.

“Research shows an 18 per cent rise in the number of overnight stays by West Australians within WA and an increase in their day trip spending of 13 per cent, which is really positive news for our tourism industry,” Dr Hames said.

The Minister said the latest National Visitor Survey quarterly figures released today by Tourism Research Australia revealed visitors spent $8.7 billion in WA in 2014-15, up from the previous year’s figures, but acknowledged more needed to be done.

“Quarterly figures are always swings and roundabouts. We’ve had a decline in visitors from other States which is disappointing, but we’ve had really strong growth in intrastate visitors not afraid to put their hands in their pockets, so that’s great news,” he said.

“Added to that, WA leads the rest of the nation in terms of growth in the cruise sector with visiting ships generating more than $275 million in 2014-15, a $159 million increase on the previous year. The cruise industry is undergoing massive growth worldwide and this is paying dividends for tourism in this State with 101 cruise ship visits to this State in 2014-15, a 48.5 per cent increase on the previous year.”

Dr Hames said tourism was a vital industry in WA which generated about 94,000 jobs, or seven per cent of the State’s total employment, and $8.7 billion in visitor spend a year.  He said the State Government wanted to see that figure increased to $12 billion by 2020.

“While the latest interstate visitor figures are a slight drop in the result from the March quarter, it was still an increase on the $8.3 billion spend in 2013-14,” he said.

“It’s important not to get too caught up in short-term influences or fluctuations. Tourism WA is constantly researching what markets are performing best and why, so the marketing budget can be targeted accordingly.”

The Minister said the State Government had committed an extra $24 million to tourism over four years and spent more on tourism per capita than NSW and Queensland.

“It’s also why we have a wide spread of markets including interstate, South East Asia, the UK and Germany.  If one market is down often another will be up which is what we’ve seen with these results,” he said.

Fact File

• The interstate visitor market accounts for 16% of the overall visitor spend
• Intrastate overnight spending increased from $2.8 billion to $3.3 billion in the 12 months to June 30, 2015, and day trip spending increased 13% to $1.9 billion
• Total tourism budget per head of population is $35 compared with NSW ($23) and QLD ($24). As percentage of State Budget, WA’s proportion is 0.3%, equal with NSW and higher than QLD at 0.2%
• Cruise visits generated the equivalent of 1,188 full-time jobs in WA
• According to Cruise Down Under, Australia’s peak cruise industry association, cruise ships visiting WA generated $275.3 million in 2014-15
• For more information, visit http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au