State Election 2021: WA tourism industry calls for $50 million package to stave off financial ruin

Struggling WA tourism operators need an immediate $50 million support package or risk financial ruin that would decimate the industry and trash any hope of a quick recovery. The emergency cash injection tops Tourism Council WA’s election wish list, released today, which also calls for the construction of a “major outdoor attraction at Elizabeth Quay” and a one-off $100 million spend on staging new events and attracting direct regional and interstate air routes. With the national vaccine rollout beginning today, Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall predicted a “golden age for domestic tourism in Australia” from the second half of the year — but warned it would come too late to save hundreds of businesses already teetering on the brink. Mr Hall said around a third of WA’s tourism operators remained on JobKeeper and would be forced to close or “drastically reduce their staff” when the Commonwealth financial support measure winds up at the end of March. “We are calling on the (Labor) Government and (Liberal) opposition to commit to a $50 million support package ahead of the State Election, which could include the waiving of land taxes, water rates, national park and transport licence fees, as well as providing direct financial support to the most affected businesses,” he said. More than half of WA’s tourism industry is Perth-based — including the vast majority of hotel rooms and bus and coach companies — and Mr Hall said they were the businesses most likely to “fall over”, drastically reducing future visitor capacity. “If interstate travellers can’t find rooms in Perth or the bus company has sold off its fleet and they can’t get on a tour that goes out to regions, they’re not going to come,” he said. “The vaccine is game-changer. It will take a few months but once the mood changes people are going travel around Australia in massive numbers. There will be a boom, a golden age in domestic tourism in Australia. “WA will be the overseas holiday the rest of Australia can’t do — but only if we have businesses around to serve out-of-State guests.” A new Tourism Council survey found the industry lost $130 million as a result of the recent Perth and South West lockdown, an average of $39,000 per business, which Mr Hall said could not have come at a worse time for companies now making decisions about letting staff go before JobKeeper ends. In the longer term, Mr Hall said Perth was missing an “iconic experience” that would lure visitors to the State and said Elizabeth Quay was the obvious choice for a flagship attraction. “The classic form would be a cable car from Kings Park and that has been talked about for a while but we’re not particularly fixed on what it is, it could be something like the London Eye,” he said. “I think it is important that it is something that is al fresco and lets visitors view the city from a height. At the moment a lot of our attractions are indoor boxes like museums. “We need to a must-do Perth experience. To be honest one of the reasons why tourism is doing so badly in Perth during COVID is that those that want to do a staycation in the city find there is very little to do.”