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The World Travel & Tourism Council‘s annual Global Summit, which got underway in Perth this morning, is viewed as an ideal hunting ground to spruik the state’s hospitality development opportunities to investors from around the globe.

Rita Saffioti, Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism said the WTTC’s multi-day conference was a “once-in-a-lifetime” platform to present Western Australia on a “massive global stage”.

“This is our opportunity to showcase our state and to highlight our economic prosperity,” Saffioti said at a media briefing at Crown Towers Perth.

Minister Saffioti said the event provides the perfect spotlight for the “significant investment in aviation opportunities” that Western Australia can offer. Since the end of the pandemic, Western Australia has secured 20 new international routes to Perth, and is intent on opening up further aviation links to Asia and beyond.

She said that the WA Government has embarked on “an ambitious agenda” to support aviation links, ensuring better connectivity to the world and to drive new tourism investment and events to the state on a year-round basis.

“We believe Western Australia should be the Western Gateway to Australia, and since the pandemic, WA has injected more than $70 million to support new aviation links.”

“We are an isolated city and that is why we rely so much on our aviation strategy.”

The Minister said Western Australia prospers on its depth of resources, “but we have a definite plan to support and grow our tourism industry, understanding that diversification of our economy, the support of tourism in our state is fundamental to new jobs and opportunities for our economy.”

“There are a number of new hotels that are being discussed. We’re looking at having more hotels, more accommodation. In this state, we’ve seen very high hotel occupancy over the past number of years.”

“We’ve had a very strong tourism sector, in particular over the past 10 years, and so we need more tourism investment in relation to hotels, and there are a number of hotel chains here, and we are very keen to support more high-end hotel accommodation,” she said.

Location, location, location

Saffioti, who is also WA’s Treasurer and Minister for Transport, said “We’ve often seen our location as a disadvantage. We’re on the western seaboard, very far away from the eastern states.”

“Western Australia versus the rest of Australia is how we see ourselves, but our proximity into the wider region means we are an ideal location to continue to support direct flights from a whole range of countries throughout the region.

“And we see that as an advantage now as we move forward. Not only to our proximity to Asia, but also to Europe. We are a direct flight. We are a lot shorter than other parts of Australia.”

“We continue to see how we can capitalise on our location and not view it as a disadvantage, but as an advantage in the global network.”

“Western Australia has incredible experiences… but we have been a little bit unknown. So it’s really about increasing our exposure. Building on our incredible natural experiences, incredible infrastructure, to support the modern tourist,” she said.

The Minister said the state is also keen to back tourism investments and attractions. She highlighted some of the most well-known tourism destinations in Western Australia were Ningaloo Reef, the Kimberley, Margaret River, Swan Valley and Rottnest Island.

“We very much look forward to how we can grow investment opportunities, in particular when it comes to accommodation facilities, how we can have more investment to support tourism going forward.

Events & Indigenous Tourism

She also spoke of a strategy to increase the range, diversity and frequency of events in Western Australia.

“We understand that tourists continue to look for new experiences, but also sometimes a reason for travel.”

“We know that tourists from around the world want to be able to experience our original culture, our indigenous culture. We have a dedicated plan to support tourism experiences across the state and we continue to work to invest in accommodation and experiences to make sure that Western Australia can continue to support new Indigenous tourism,” Minister Saffioti added.

“We look forward to sharing opportunities to invest and work together into the future, to support our tourism products and also to build on our strategies to grow our tourism industry,” she concluded.

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