Western Australia has leveraged its Indigenous heritage as one of the key topics of the annual World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit being held in Perth (Boorloo).
“Indigenous tourism has immense potential, empowering communities to be in control of their own stories and their own economic futures now that is regenerative tourism tomorrow,” WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson said at the conference which is being held in Australia for the first time.
The WA Government was successful in attracting the global event (at an unknown cost) with Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism Rita Saffioti, saying yesterday that the conference was a “once-in-a-lifetime” platform to present Western Australia on a “massive global stage”.
WTTC will also launch its first-ever report on global Indigenous tourism tomorrow, with Simpson adding how good a model Western Australia is for this travel sector.
“This might be the land of mining, iron ore and lithium, but travel and tourism is a resource that’s growing and it keeps on giving,” she said.
“Let’s look at its economic footprint here in Australia this year, the tourism sectors forecast to be worth US$176 billion, a bit like the global economy. That’s over 10 per cent of Australia’s GDP. And you know, it’s just touching the sides. It could do even more across Oceania – that includes, obviously, the beautiful, enchanting Pacific islands. The sector is projected to grow 3.2 per cent every year in the next decade, outpacing the rest of the economy.”
Premier Roger Cook congratulated, tongue in cheek, organisers for choosing to hold the global summit in Western Australia.
“This is the first time it’s been in Australia. We commend you on your choice of state,” he said.
“We want to continue to make sure that we can offer Western Australia to the world, because we believe it has so much to offer,” he said after acknowledging the First Nations Australians and other first nations people from around the world.
“We have some pristine coastlines, rugged, stunning landscapes, culinary delights, some of the world leading wineries. And we also have the longest and most continuous living culture in the world, our Indigenous people, a cultural experience which you can gain nowhere else in the world, but in Western Australia. And we want to continue to show that.”
The Premier also announced the funding of a new Perth convention and exhibition centre with a $17 million contribution “to bring further alive our incredible cityscape to continue to make the visitor experience in Western Australia even greater”.
His address was followed by a welcome to country by Walter McGuire a traditional Noongyar Boodjar owner and in the board of WAIDOC, the peak representative for Aboriginal tours and experiences in Western Australia.
Travel most to most to gain from AI
On the subject of AI, in her opening address, Simpson said travel and tourism have now been vaunted as a sector with the most opportunities and the most to gain from AI.
“In cruise and airlines, it can optimise routes in bad weather. Quantum computing can save up to 5 per cent on a cruise line to fuel bill and in our daily operations, it’s reducing risk and stripping out cost,” she said.
When it came to environmental imapact, Simpson announced that WTTC is publishing with partner, Saudi Arabia, unique data updating the travel sector’s environmental footprints.
“It shows that the greenhouse gas emissions from Travel and Tourism have reduced from 7.8 per cent in 2019, to 6.7 per cent last year. But most importantly, our carbon intensity is falling. Our sector generated less than half a kilo of carbon per dollar that travel and tourism generated last year, 8.3 per cent less than it was in 2019.
