West Australia breaks tourism record as 1.02m overseas visitors flocked west, beating pre-pandemic peak

The State Government has hailed a tourism milestone, with new figures revealing a record one million tourists arrived in WA in the year to October. Figures to be released on Sunday show 1.02m overseas arrivals, led by visitors from the UK — breaking the pre-pandemic record of 996,000 arrivals. The UK was followed by Singapore, New Zealand, China and Malaysia as the most frequent homeland of tourists, ranging from between 140,000 and 63,000 each. “WA is now Australia’s best state for international tourism recovery, recording the nation’s biggest year-on-year percentage increase in overseas visitor numbers and fully recovering from COVID-19 a full two years ahead of the Tourism Research Australia’s forecast for Australia as a whole,” Tourism Minister Reece Whitby said. He said major sporting and entertainment events for WA was helping build the local tourism market. The introduction of 20 direct routes to various destinations in the world — like London, Paris and Rome — from 24 international airlines was also opening WA to the world. “With another major global event this weekend in the SailGP, these figures are a major endorsement of the Cook Government’s priority to diversify our economy, and make it more vibrant,” Mr Whitby said. “The excitement for visitors isn’t over — with the AFL Origin match on February 14 to draw visitors from out of State, and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup opening ceremony match on March 1.” Tourism is the State’s fifth-largest employer, supporting more than 120,000 tourism filled jobs in 2023-24 and more than 30,000 tourism and hospitality business across WA. “This achievement shows the Cook Government’s investment in tourism is working,” Mr Whitby said. “Whether it’s promoting WA abroad with an award-winning brand, securing blockbuster events, increasing aviation connectivity, creating sustainable Aboriginal tourism experiences, or activating the regions through new cruise and accommodation options, the visitor economy is growing.” Figures released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics put short-term visitor arrivals nationally in November at 831,170 — a whopping 19.5 per cent increase compared to the same time in 2024.