TOURISM —
FAMILIARISATION TOURS
960. Mr D.T. REDMAN to the Minister for Tourism:
I have a supplementary question.
Can the minister confirm whether we are open to tourism from Queensland,
Tasmania and the ACT or not, because it would appear his agency does not seem
to think so?
Mr P.
PAPALIA replied:
That is a bit of a leap from a three-person
delegation coming for a familiarisation with tourism attractions in Western Australia to not being open. Obviously, we
are in a pandemic. Things are a little unpredictable. As recently as a few
days ago, a state that we were having a controlled border with and we were
welcoming visitors from has gone into complete lockdown—the toughest
lockdown in the country, in excess of what Victoria had. Therefore, I would
commend Tourism WA for being a little prudent about the use of taxpayers'
money that is focused on attracting visitors
in the event that there may not be much of a market right now because people
may be inclined to be a little reserved about travelling in this
environment. They may be a little bit cautious about leaving their own state in
the event that a border arrangement may change at short notice. I would commend
Tourism WA.
I will finish in not really giving
much credence to the member's question by saying that Tourism Western Australia
is demonstrably the best tourism agency in the country. In 2018, we went from
inheriting a disaster in tourism from your lot, in an absolutely depressed
environment in which no thought was being given to what would happen at the end
of the business travel boom that was happening in the mining sector, to us
implementing a two-year action. It started in 2018 when we had the biggest
out-of-state visitor numbers in history, only exceeded in 2019 when we got even
bigger numbers. We were on track for even bigger numbers in 2020 and then, of
course, the pandemic intervened. Nevertheless, the Wander Out Yonder campaign
is the best and most successful intrastate campaign in history. We have the
best tourism market in the country. We have more people travelling in Western Australia's
regions than any other state has, and that is a big part of what the Treasurer
just referred to. The hospitality, accommodation and tourism sectors have been
the big contributors to the growth in jobs since we got back into operation.