RECONNECT
WA
489. Mr G. BAKER to the Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the McGowan
Labor government's Reconnect WA package to promote Western Australia,
attract investment and diversify the state's economy.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on the success of the major blockbuster events that
this government has secured for Western Australia?
(2) What have the events meant for the promotion of the state
and the local community?
Mr R.H. COOK replied:
(1)–(2)
I thank the member for the question. It is a great question, because we know
that Western Australia is open for business and open for tourism. The $195 million
Reconnect WA package is all about taking Western
Australia to the world, reconnecting with our old friends and neighbours, and
making new friends and bringing them to Western Australia.
The events that we hold in Western
Australia are great fun but they are also a serious part of our economy. This
year, Western Australia became the sporting capital of Australia. The Winter
Live festival of sport began on 26 June with
the Ampol State of Origin and a sold-out crowd of 59 398 fans, along with 3.1
million TV viewers who watched that rather unfortunate result of the New South
Wales Blues defeating the Queensland Maroons. The revenue per available room
received by Perth city accommodation for that Saturday night Origin game was
the fifth highest since 2018, bettered only by the 2021 AFL grand final and New Year's Eve events. The following
Saturday, international Rugby Union returned to Optus Stadium when the Wallabies had a 30–28 win over
England in front of a crowd of 47 688 people. What is interesting about
those numbers is that that was a larger number of people than the number who
attended the game in Brisbane or the game in Sydney, which is the so-called
home of Rugby Union in Australia. That was a
great attendance by WA sports lovers. The unforgettable, sold-out Suncorp Super
Netball grand final was held at RAC Arena, which was won by West Coast
Fever for the first time in its 25-year history. That was a day that I think we
were all immensely proud to be Western Australians.
If that was not enough, we also
had Perth's Festival of International Football, or ICON 2022, held at
our award-winning, world-class Optus Stadium, where Manchester United, Aston
Villa, Crystal Palace and Leeds United took part in the biggest festival of
English Premier League football in WA. Although we are still waiting to receive
the full economic impact of the ICON festival, the early numbers are that we had an at least 10 per cent lift in hotel
occupancy over that weekend and over 97 000 people attended those two games
over the two nights. The figures will no doubt demonstrate the value of hosting
such high-calibre events in Western Australia. In addition to the domestic and
international broadcast showcasing Perth to the global audience, the
teams' players were treated to an array of tourism experiences that
were incorporated into the broadcast and shared on the players' and
teams' social media platforms. Manchester United, in particular, has
significant grunt in its social media capacity. All these events have driven
thousands of visitors to our city and showcased our beautiful state to hundreds
of thousands of people around the world.
A
massive thankyou to the staff across our tourism and hospitality sector who
catered for all those great events, filling
our bars, cafes and hotels, and bringing the state alive and continuing to
energise our economy. I am proud of the work done by the McGowan
government to make Perth one of the top three events destinations of South-East Asia. It is great fun, but it is a serious
part of our economy. With the Reconnect WA package, we are making great
strides in our tourism industry.