WA ‘comes out shining’ in dramatic tourism revival

Western Australia is enjoying a tourism boom as airlines flock to add new international routes.

Beautiful Busselton, one of the recipients of new direct flights since Covid. Picture: Tourism Western Australia

Two years after Western Australia became the last part of the country to reopen borders, the state is enjoying a huge tourism revival thanks to a slew of new direct flights.

Visitors can take one flight into WA from multiple points around the world including London, Johannesburg, Ho Chi Minh City and Tokyo with Qantas’ new Paris-Perth service starting in July, Perth-Rome resuming in June and Thai Airway’s Bangkok-Perth returning on March 31.

On the domestic front, there are also more options for travellers with Jetstar beginning a Sydney-Busselton service on Tuesday in addition to Melbourne-Busselton andAirnorth operating Alice Springs to Perth.

Tourism Western Australia managing director Carolyn Turnbull said the direct flights were not only the envy of other states, they were critical to WA’s success with over 90 per cent of visitors arriving by air.

“The sort of flights we’ve attracted have been an absolute game changer for us,” Ms Turnbull said.

“We can confidently say to the world that Perth is the only city in Australia with point to point direct services from Europe and the UK, which is a unique selling point for WA.

“People are considering WA as a destination and even a stand-alone destination.”

The proof was in the spending, with WA recording a 28 per cent leap in visitor expenditure in the year to September, compared to same period in 2019, from $13.5bn to $17.3bn.

Short-term arrivals from Europe were the state’s biggest source of overseas visitors last year, splashing out $433m, in an encouraging sign passengers were stopping over rather than simply transiting through.

Perth is proving much more than a transit city for international arrivals on direct flights, says Tourism WA.

That was also true of passengers on Qantas’ Perth-Rome flights, with WA recording 14,000 visitors from Italy in 2023, up from just over 10,000 a year pre-Covid.

Ms Turnbull said the success of those ultra-long non-stop services had not gone unnoticed by other carriers, now looking to emulate their success.

“Whether that be European airlines or Asian-based airlines, they’re really looking to WA as a viable option as they start to build out their pipeline of aviation services,” she said.

There was confidence Qantas would maintain its services from Perth, after the airline launched long awaited Project Sunrise flights connecting the east coast capitals with London and New York from 2026.

Given the profitability of Perth-London, Ms Turnbull said it was clear there was “ample demand” for the service to continue as a stand-alone route.

“We see the upcoming Sydney service as complementary to the existing Perth connection, which will coexist and create new itinerary opportunities for global travellers across the Australian network,” she added.

The surge in interest around WA was a far cry from the difficult Covid years, when hard line border closures saw the state cut off from the rest of the country and the world, until March 3, 2022.

Ms Turnbull said it was fair to say they had “come out shining”.

“In a post-Covid world, there’s something to be said about a place that’s a bit further away, and offers an off the beaten track experience. It’s exactly what travellers of today are looking for,” she said.

“WA is very differently positioned to the rest of Australia. It’s not about mass market tourism, it’s not about volume, it’s about curating lifetime experiences that are tapping into that high yielding visitor. We’re all about quality over quantity in WA.”

Originally published as WA ‘comes out shining’ in dramatic tourism revival