The Perth Hotel Development Report 2017 shows that over 1400 hotel rooms have been completed in Perth since 2012, with another 1400 expected to be completed in the remainder of 2017 or in 2018.
Tourism Council WA CEO Evan Hall stated, "with a number of hotels currently under construction, as well as several under renovation or with committed government contracts, there are thousands of hotel rooms in the pipeline for delivery in the next few years and many will sit empty without growth in leisure tourism".
"There are thousands of hotel rooms in the pipeline for delivery in the next few years and many will sit empty without growth in leisure tourism", Tourism Council WA.
Mr Hall stated that while the latest International Visitor Survey showed moderate growth, Western Australia had lost significant market share of international visitor spend in Australia over the past several years.
"The ongoing loss of market share when it comes to international expenditure is not conducive to filling the 1,400 new hotel rooms currently under construction, or for the creation of jobs for Western Australians", he said.
Speaking at the recent CAPA-ACTE Aviation and Corporate Travel Summit in Melbourne, Ord Minnett senior research analyst John O'Shea warned of the impact the mining boom had had on Perth.
During the height of the boom the hotel chains invested greatly in increasing capacity in the city, but were never able to reap the rewards. Capacity now greatly outweighs demand, with leisure travellers not picking up the slack.
Tourism Council WA is calling for the new State government's election commitment of AUD425 million to tourism over five years is invested well to realise visitor and job growth, as well as filling new and existing hotel rooms.
Tourism Council WA also had an important message for Tourism WA, urging the government agency to become a more market-focused organisation which drives visitors and jobs into Western Australia.
"It is imperative that Tourism WA is an independent agency specialising in destination marketing and driving tourism to WA through complex international travel trade distribution channels. Tourism is a job of specialists, best delivered by industry experts", Mr Hall continued.
Plans by Qantas to introduce new London-Perth nonstop services in Mar-2018 should assist with balancing the capacity and demand.
Qantas expects the services to deliver an AUD70 million a year boost to the Western Australia economy. Qantas WA regional manager Julian Barry stated: "The whole idea of the new service is to generate tourism and, rather than have people flying into Perth and flying to other States, actually staying in Western Australia and exploring the State".
Qantas also announced that the success of the nonstop service will determine if additional regional services are added. Mr Barry continued: "If we have more people travelling into Perth, we will obviously look at the opportunity to create more services regionally".
To hear more from industry experts and key spokespeople, join us at the CAPA-ACTE Perth Aviation and Corporate Travel Summit on 4th July 2017. Register your attendance here.