AusLeisure

The tourism and leisure industry in Western Australia employs more than ​109,000 people according to the 2015/16 State Tourism Satellite Account.

Prepared by Tourism Research Australia, the figures show 72,000 people are directly employed in tourism industry, with a further 37,000 employed indirectly.

The direct jobs are in businesses supplying goods and services straight to tourists, such as restaurants and tour companies, while the indirect jobs include areas such as caravan manufacturers and laundries that service hotels.

The figure represents an increase of 4,000 jobs from 2014/15.

The Western Australian Government has pledged $425 million to destination marketing and events over the next five years in a commitment to tourism's role in diversifying the local economy.

In 2016, 30.7 million visitors spent $10 billion in Western Australia, including $4.7 billion in regional Western Australia.

Every $225,000 in overnight visitor spend, or 179 overnight visitors to Western Australia, creates one job in the tourism industry.

Commenting on the figures, Tourism Council Western Australia Chief Executive Evan Hall stated “tourism has well and truly staked its claim as one of the major employers for this State, overtaking industries such as mining.

Hall highlighted that as the increase occurred in the 2015/16 financial year under the previous Western Australian Government, it was now in the hands of the current Government to continue growing tourism jobs.

Hall cautioned “recent data shows Western Australia is in the midst of a tourism and hospitality downturn, with numbers of intrastate and interstate visitors declining.

“With massive investment currently underway in hotels and tourism infrastructure, what is now needed is investment in more effective marketing and events to reverse this trend and bring more visitors to Western Australia, continuing the growth in tourism jobs.

“If we don’t invest in effectively promoting WA as a visitor destination then the tourism industry will not be able to create the jobs WA needs.”

Tourism generates more jobs than traditional industries such as agriculture, forestry and fishing, manufacturing and mining.

For more information and a breakdown of the types of jobs people are employed go to www.tourism.wa.gov.au/research

Image: Out and About Wine Tours.

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