WITH the enthusiastic catchcry of ‘See It Do It’, the Western Australian events calendar for 2004 is aiming for its biggest-ever year in events tourism for the State.
WITH the enthusiastic catchcry of ‘See It Do It’, the Western Australian events calendar for 2004 is aiming for its biggest-ever year in events tourism for the State.
Never before has Western Australia had such a rich and varied line up of tourism events, EventsCorp executive director Madeleine Bertelli told those at last week’s launch of the 2004 events calender.
With a new statewide approach, next year’s calender places greater emphasis on regional events, has more arts and cultural events and aims to create more of a festival atmosphere through a closer relationship with industry and event organisers.
EventsCorp is aiming to top its 2003 event calender performance, which injected more than $67 million in to the State economy.
The WA leg of the Rugby World Cup 2003 accounted for more than half of the economic activity. The popular event attracted 17,600 interstate and international visitors – three times the estimated number – and contributed $36 million in direct spend to the local economy.
Among the new events on offer for 2004 is the Ironman Western Australia in Busselton, the WestNet Indian Ocean Masters Games in Geraldton, the ICF Canoe Marathon World Cup in Perth, His Majesty’s Theatre Honours … Centenary Celebrations Event, and the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth.
Local events such as Sky-works, the Leeuwin Concert, the Channel 7 Crab Fest in Mandurah, the Airnorth Ord Valley Muster in the East Kimberley and the Avon Descent have been included in the new calendar, which will be accessible to travel agents and potential visitors in national and international locations.
Visiting Perth to help promote the See It Do It events calendar launch was one of WA’s most successful business exports, Rod Eddington.
For the past three years the former Perth boy and Rhodes scholar has held the challenging role of British Airways chief executive.
Previously Mr Eddington was executive chairman of Ansett Airlines, a post he held until April 2000.
Mr Eddington said that, in recent years, tourism had become recognised in WA as an industry in its own right, employing around 8 per cent of the State’s workforce and contributing nearly $4 billion to State coffers.
“This is an extraordinary State; you just don’t appreciate what it has until you’ve lived overseas,” he said.
Australian destinations had gained in prominence since Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympics, according to Mr Eddington.
“Australia hosted the Olympic Games better than anyone had hosted it before, and the world noticed,” he said.
Mr Eddington said while the tourism industry was recovering from recent challenges there was concern in the industry of a re-occurrence of the SARS virus with the onset of the Northern Hemisphere winter.
British tourists remain WA’s largest tourist market, Mr Eddington told WA Business News.
Of the 500,000 people to visit WA on average each year about 170,000 are from Britain, with Singapore and Indonesia identified as growing markets.
“What is important to WA tourism is a presence in London and the United Kingdom,” Mr Eddington said.
And he sees sustainable tourism as vital to ensure longevity of the industry.
“I don’t think that a tourism industry can hold a robust position without environmental responsibility.”
