Exclusive by James Wilkinson
With up to 4000 rooms set we developed in Perth, the Australian Hotels Association’s West Australian branch says a significant amount of money needs to be invested in tourism marketing or the city could face a massive oversupply Hotel rooms.
AHA(WA) CEO, Bradley Woods, told HM the issue has now hit a critical stage as more projects continue to be announced such as the new DoubleTree Hilton in the Perth suburb of Northbridge.
“The WA State Government has effectively stimulated Perth hotel accommodation investment,” he told HM.
“With at least 2925 new hotel rooms to be built over the next 3-4 years, the next step is to see the WA Government substantially increase destination marketing to fill the new capacity.
“While the level of investment is a positive sign for the industry, there is a risk of oversupply if demand does not grow as the mining sector slows.
“WA’s destination marketing budget needs to increase by at least $20 million to bring it into line with other States and increase the number of visitors to WA.
“To ensure the government’s stimulation of new build hotels and investment in the market is successful, government policy must encourage the growth of business travel and tourism to Western Australia.
“Western Australia must be seen as more than an occasional major events destination; MICE and events tourism is a critical area of focus requiring more government investment.
“We have to see Western Australia promoted on television in the eastern states, we have to see Western Australia promoted in newspapers, magazines and on billboards.
“This level of advertising is currently not at the level it needs to be,” he said.
Woods said there was an additional 3819 additional rooms in 31 hotel/serviced apartment developments under consideration and this was on top of the 407 rooms added to WA’s existing hotel stock since 2012.