Tourism Research Australia has just released the 2024-25 State and Regional Tourism Satellite Accounts, and it’s the clearest picture we get all year of what the visitor economy is actually worth. I’ve been through the WA and South West numbers so you don’t have to. Here’s what they say, and why they matter for your business.

Tourism is very much alive in WA

Visitors spent $21.1 billion in Western Australia last year. Tourism contributed $16.6 billion to the state economy and supported 106,800 jobs. That’s 6% of every filled job in WA. Not mining. Not agriculture. Tourism.

Zoom into our patch and the story gets more personal. The South West generated $3.3 billion in tourism spending across 3,055 tourism businesses, supporting 10,200 direct jobs. Tourism makes up 4.5% of the entire regional economy and 6.8% of the region’s jobs. If you run an accommodation property, a tour, a venue or a cellar door down here, you’re part of one of the region’s biggest industries.

The honest bit

The numbers also came with a warning light. Nationally, tourism consumption grew 3.4% to a record $211.1 billion. Every state grew except two, and WA was the standout decline: down 6.3% statewide, and down 10.8% here in the South West.

One important caveat before anyone panics. TRA has completely rebuilt how these figures are measured this year, moving to a new collection method, so they warn that comparisons with earlier years should be treated with caution, especially for smaller regions like ours. The trend is a signal, not a verdict.

But the direction matters. While the east coast grows, WA is losing share of a growing national pie. Travellers haven’t stopped spending. They’re spending somewhere else.

What the mix tells us

Dig into who spends here and how, and the playbook writes itself.

Domestic overnight visitors drive 79% of South West tourism spending. International is just 5%. Our market isn’t in Tokyo or London. It’s in Perth, deciding this week whether to drive down or stay home.

Accommodation is the region’s biggest tourism earner at $289.9 million in direct value added, followed by transport at $234.5 million and food services at $161.5 million. Statewide, food services is the biggest tourism employer at 23,400 jobs. Every restaurant meal, every night booked, every tour seat filled is this data in miniature.

Why this matters for your business

When a market grows, everyone gets a little more. When a market tightens, the visible businesses win and the invisible ones wear the decline. A 10.8% drop in regional spending doesn’t land evenly. It lands hardest on the businesses that are hardest to find, understand, trust and book.

That’s the real message in these numbers. Tourism in the South West is a $3.3 billion industry with 3,055 businesses competing for the drive market’s attention. The question isn’t whether the visitors exist. It’s whether they find you.

If you want to know how visible your business actually is, start with our free Brand Visibility Audit. It takes two minutes and shows you exactly where you’re strong and where you’re leaking bookings.

Source: Tourism Research Australia, State and Regional Tourism Satellite Accounts 2024-25. Figures for Western Australia and the Australia’s South West tourism region.