Perth seems to be losing its shine among tourists who are heading towards destinations like Canberra, Hobart and Brisbane of late. Also, Margaret River and Broome are on the blink of oblivion in terms of its tourist arrivals.
The results are a product of surveys conducted by Roy Morgan Research in 2006 and 2016.
In this research, they enquired from prospective holidaymakers as to where they would prefer visiting in the following two years. Now, Perth has declined in its popularity quotient as a tourist locale. Right from 1.7 million tourists, the number of tourists arriving here plummeted to 1.5 million.
Offering Perth tough competition are Hobart and Brisbane, each possessing the potential of drawing 1.8 million vacationers.
Perth is still popular, just like Canberra, to certain extent.
The only tourists who seem to be interested in Perth are in the age group over-65s. Esperance, Pilbara and South West are the very few destinations in Perth that are witnessing improved tourism performance.
Broome was down to 656,000 from 939,000 and Shark Bay’s tourist figures dropped down to 314,000 from 550,000.
Norman Morris, communications director of Roy Morgan Research mentioned that Perth was the third most desired capital city of Australia in the year 2006, behind only Melbourne and Sydney. He feels that Perth is gradually losing its appeal. Over the last decade, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) has been boosting the tourism sector of Hobart. On the other hand, the foodie culture of Brisbane has started attracting a different breed of travellers.
Gwyn Dolphin, the chief executive of Tourism WA thinks that Perth has gained a reputation while the resources were booming as they were expensive.
He added that the city was witnessing a certain lack of visitor experiences. However, things are hanging slowly. Dolphin said that Perth would be equipped with nearly 3500 new hotel rooms in the following few years.
Evan Hall, the chief executive of Tourism Council stated that recently, Perth had grown into a very sophisticated tourism destination.
He said that a greater amount of resources need to be spent in order to market WA and Perth in other states.
Lisa Scaffidi, the mayor, said that Perth was still popular on account of its natural splendor, food, climate and liveability.
