Coronavirus: Border closure may aid WA tourism numbers

WA’s besieged tourism industry may actually benefit from the state’s ongoing border closure with the rest of the country.

Prevelly Beach near Margaret River in south-west Western Australia. Picture: Istock

The hundreds of thousands of Western Australians previously headed for Bali and Sydney this year could see the state’s besieged tourism industry actually benefit from the state’s ongoing border closure with the rest of the country.

The number of West Australians who holidayed interstate or overseas last year exceeded the number who visited from the eastern states, suggesting that local holidaymakers are well-placed to help make up the slack from a prolonged hard border.

West Australians make an estimated two million trips interstate and overseas for holidays each year, according to figures from Tourism Research Australia, a number that eclipsed the record 1.86m interstate visits for holidays and business last year.

The WA government has been urging its citizens to take the opportunity to see more of their home state, and converting those international and interstate holidays into local ones could help offset the loss of visitors from the east.

The implications for tourism have been at the centre of an ongoing war of words between various state premiers and the Federal government.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, Federal minister for home affairs Peter Dutton and attorney general Christian Porter have all called for the interstate borders to be reopened, and deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly has said there is no medical reason to keep the border closed.

But the likes Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her WA counterpart Mark McGowan have been adamant that the borders will remain closed for potentially months to come, with Mr McGowan declaring that the state won’t be “bullied” into reopening.

WA health minister Roger Cook on Thursday said the ongoing diagnoses of coronavirus in NSW and Victoria in particular supported the case for a continued closure of the border.

“We know that there are still community outbreaks and community transmission in two particular jurisdictions, and I think it’s quite rational for the other jurisdictions to say ‘look we think at this stage that you should stay put’,” he said.

While Mr Dutton argued that the border closures were a “disaster” for tourism operators in his home state of Queensland, the tourism statistics in Western Australia suggest that the biggest state has much less to lose from a prolonged border closure.

The differences of opinion over the border closures are not contained to the political sphere. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry this week called for the border closures to be lifted, but the organisation’s Western Australian arm has spoken out in favour of keeping the border closed for now.

CCI WA chief economist Aaron Morey told The Australian that while he understood the border closures would impact some of the group’s members, the ongoing infection levels in NSW and Victoria justified keeping the borders closed.

“Ultimately the Western Australian government is acting off its own health advice, and the health advice is telling us to keep those borders up,” he said.

While there is strong domestic support in WA for interstate border to remain in place, there is growing concern about the state’s remaining regional borders.

The northern parts of WA are about to enter their prime tourism season, but remain cut-off to visitors from Perth.

Mr Morey said the state should bring forward the lifting of those intrastate boundaries, as well as the so-called ‘phase three’ easing of other restrictions such as limits on cafes and restaurants.

“Within WA, with no community transmission, the government needs to make sure that as soon as it is comfortable it brings forward those phase three settings as soon as its safe and not necessarily wait the full four weeks they set out,” he said.