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The West Live: Tourism Council of WA CEO Evan Hall weighs into Qantas’ unprecedented flight deals

Headshot of Danielle Le Messurier
Danielle Le MessurierThe West Australian
A camel ride on Cable Beach can be a joy for many ages.
Camera IconA camel ride on Cable Beach can be a joy for many ages. Credit: James Morgan

West Australians are being urged to resist the lure of cheap interstate flights and instead holiday at home when borders reopen, with the boss of the State’s peak tourism body warning regional towns will die without support from Perth travellers.

It comes after the Qantas Group announced it will launch an unprecedented tourism blitz with fares up to 30 per cent lower than the previous best sale fares, when coronavirus travel restrictions are lifted.

A Jetstar Perth to Sydney/Melbourne fare would be priced from $89 one-way and Adelaide from just $79.

The cost of flights within WA would also be slashed — Broome would be just $175 one-way on Qantas, which is half the normal fare of $339.

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Tourism Council of WA chief executive Evan Hall told The West Live host Jenna Clarke that he was fully supportive of cheaper flights to the State’s north but stressed the regional travel ban should be lifted before the interstate border lockdown to revive WA’s tourism industry.

“West Australians travelling in WA has always been the biggest part of tourism in this State — it’s almost 80 per cent in regional areas is West Australians going particularly from Perth out to regional areas and that’s the sort of travel that we really need,” he said.

“For most of those regional towns it’s Perth people coming through, staying, spending a dollar, going out and dining and so on that really keeps those towns going and unless we have those travellers from Perth we just don’t have the economies of scale to keep up tourism.

“A lot of towns will frankly die unless they get that tourism dollar.”

Mr Hall said the Tourism Council estimated WA’s tourism industry has lost about six months’ worth of bookings worth about $3 billion following the implementation of the regional travel ban, designed to curb the spread of coronavirus.

He said towns in the State’s north and South West were gearing up for a bumper tourism season before Easter — with many West Aussies cancelling plans to holiday overseas to holiday at home — and that had “all disappeared in a matter of days”.

“The timing of this was just atrocious… we were literally about a week out from Easter, school holidays and our peak season for whale sharks and for opening up Broome when everything got cancelled,” Mr Hall said.

“And all those businesses, particularly in the north, they don’t operate all year round… they’ll operate mainly from mid-March to September or October and suddenly all that business for their peak season was gone.

“They’ve been living off loans, not operating for six months before that and if we don’t open up again during that peak season they’re looking at 18-months of not operating because we’ll obviously go into the wet season after that and the shut down.

“We’re very, very worried about areas like Broome.”

Mr Hall also encouraged West Australians to book their holidays direct with local tourism operators when COVID-19 restrictions are eventually lifted.

“All I’d ask West Australians is please go direct, give them a phone call… or book online,” he said.

“The prices will be the same if not better but even better you’re going to keep all of the money in that regional town.”

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