WA sees international visitor growth

The latest International Visitor Survey, released by Tourism Research Australia, shows 954,000 people visited WA from overseas in 2016 – 105,200 more than 2015. This represents a growth of 12.4 per cent, higher than the national growth rate of 11.2 per cent.

Tourism WA CEO Gwyn Dolphin said it was particularly satisfying to see a big jump in the number of people coming from overseas purely for a holiday.

“The number of holiday makers increased by 23.7 per cent for the year, which shows our renewed push of Perth in particular as a holiday destination is gaining traction. We will keep our sights firmly targeted on this sector as more hotel rooms come online and new tourism attractions, both public and private, open up,” Mr Dolphin said.

"These figures show us that the green shoots are there for recovery and we've got good reason to believe we can grow these numbers year on year," he said.

Another positive result was the 15.6 per cent increase in the number of international students choosing WA as their place of study for 2016.

The amount international visitors spent in WA in 2015 also showed signs of growth, up 6.5 per cent on 2015 to $2.4 billion.

http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au/