Visitor Results, Border Closures and Industry Support

The latest visitor results from Tourism Research Australia’s National Visitor Survey paint a bleak picture for Western Australian Tourism. The latest results indicate that WA’s domestic tourism industry lost $214m in July 2020 when compared to July 2019. Whilst both intrastate visitor numbers increased by 9% and intrastate visitor spend increased by $72m this was not nearly enough to compensate for the $286m loss from interstate visitor spending.

If you then add the loss from international visitor spend Tourism Council WA estimates that Western Australian tourism lost more than $400m in July 2020. These numbers are shocking however, what is more concerning is that these losses are predicted to continue well into 2021.

With international travel off the table for the foreseeable future, Australian tourism is reliant on intra and interstate travel to sustain the industry. Whilst many interstate borders are starting to open up and benefit from interstate visitors, the recent Western Australian State Budget announcement included an assumption that the Western Australian interstate hard border will remain until at least 1 April 2021. Tourism Council CEO Evan Hall said ‘By April 2021, this would amount to more than $3 billion lost in overall domestic tourism. This does not include the more than $2 billion that will also be lost from international tourism by that time’.

There are upsides to the hard border closure including increased confidence, which has positive benefits for consumer spending and the economy, along with the outstanding results Western Australia has seen in keeping COVID-19 outbreaks to a minimum, so far avoiding a second wave and the last case of community transmission detected in the state was April 11 2020. BUT, and there’s always a but, at what cost has this come to the State’s tourism and travel related industries? And how much longer can these industries survive without a much needed injection of visitors?

The recently announced WA State budget has offered some relief with an increase to tourism funding and includes discounted regional airfares to encourage Western Australians to travel to regional areas. The budget is also funding a Tourism Recovery Package that focuses on upgrades to nature based tourism facilities such as key drawcard Rottnest Island and National Parks.

These announcements are on top of Tourism Western Australia’s biggest ever intrastate tourism campaign launched in 2020 to encourage West Australians to book an Adventure in WA. The campaign included the ‘Work and Wander out Yonder’ campaign to address labour shortages in regional WA as a result of COVID-19 and the ‘A million reasons to Wander our Yonder’ campaign offering $100 vouchers to West Australians to put towards a tour or experience. The 10,000 vouchers on offer were snapped up in just 4 minutes indicating the high level of interest in intrastate travel currently.

At a local government level many LGA’s have developed targeted recovery plans to compliment State programs and assist key local industries. For example, here at the City of Wanneroo an Economic Recovery Taskforce was formed during the pandemic to develop an Economic Recovery Framework and Action Plan in response to the challenges our local economy was facing due to COVID-19. The City of Wanneroo launched a #SupportWannerooLocal campaign during the height of the pandemic to support all local businesses and to highlight local businesses that had made a pivot in response to lock downs and restrictions to normal business activity.

One of the key actions in the Plan was the launch of the City’s Economic Recovery Fund last month, which includes access to a range of free expert advice and support provided by industry specialists along with rebates for training or business advice undertaken to assist recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is just one example of how LGA’s are supporting local businesses and there are many more great examples from around Australia.

Whilst only time will tell what the full impact hard border closures will have on the tourism industry there is support on offer from all levels of government to help navigate through these uncertain times. I would encourage operators to get in touch with their local Regional Tourism Association for support, information on assistance and guidance during these challenging times.