July 19 2018 WA needs stand-alone Tourism Department The State Government should immediately appoint a dedicated CEO for tourism to address the continuing dramatic falls in the amount of money tourists are spending in WA, according to Shadow Minister Tourism Minister Libby Mettam. Ms Mettam said national visitor spend figures released yesterday showed an 8 per cent decline in international visitor spend in Western Australia, in sharp contrast to increases in all other states and an average national increase of 6 per cent. “The McGowan Government needs to move quickly to reverse the machinery of Government changes that downgraded the standalone status of the Department of Tourism and resulted in an exodus of experience and expert personnel,” Ms Mettam said. “That international visitor spend has increased in in every other state and there has been an increase of 6 per cent nationally, while international visitor spend in WA dropped by 8 per cent shows the Government needs to do more. “South Australia saw an increase in international visitor spend of 10 per cent while Tasmania saw an increase of 20 per cent – these figures show the McGowan Government has dropped the ball in this important sector. “They need to make a decision about how seriously they want to treat the tourism portfolio. "Mark McGowan put tourism front and centre during the last election, but in Government removed our most senior and experienced tourism bureaucrat, shared the leadership of tourism among a number of other departments and appointed a part-time contractor to negotiate with airlines on the State’s behalf. “We also saw this Government use $7 million of last year’s tourism events budget for other projects, cut funding for destination development and remove incentives for international students." Ms Mettam said yesterday’s figures came on top of the recent 9 per cent decline in interstate spend. "The biggest tourism announcements in WA since the last election, the Perth Stadium, Perth to London flights and the Roger Federer visit, were all initiatives of the former Liberal Government and were all opposed by Premier McGowan before the election," Ms Mettam said. Media Contact |
