Tourism WA: Hotel room marketing push welcomed by tourism industry body
21-Aug-2017 Tourism Council WA has welcomed the announcement by the State Government today that $2 million of Tourism WA's current budget will be re-prioritised to help fill Perth's hotel rooms.
"With Western Australia in the midst of a tourism and hospitality downturn, it is encouraging to see the State Government proactively pursuing an increase in visitor numbers through an immediate cooperative marketing campaign," said Tourism Council WA CEO Evan Hall.
"The untied nature of the $85 million per year which was committed by WA Labor in the lead up to the State Election is imperative in allowing the flexibility for immediate and tactical campaigns such as the one announced today."
The campaign will see Tourism WA, the State Government agency responsible for marketing Western Australia, work with cooperative marketing partners such as airlines, travel agents and travel websites to offer incentives for people to travel now and take advantage of reasonable hotel rates, targeting markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, China, Sydney and Melbourne which have short lead times for bookings.
Tourism Council WA's Perth Hotel Development Report 2017, released earlier this year, shows there are more than 1,400 hotel rooms currently under construction with completion expected either this year or in 2018. More than 1,450 hotel rooms have been completed in Perth since 2012.
"With thousands of hotel rooms either recently completed or in the pipeline, a significant increase in leisure visitors is needed to fill them," Mr Hall said.
"It is pleasing to see the State Government identifying visitor attraction as their number one priority and backing that up with an immediate multi-million dollar campaign to attract visitors who will not only fill hotel rooms, but also create jobs for Western Australians."