Crown's $568 million investment in building a 500-room hotel in Perth is a huge boost to the tourism industry in a city sorely in need of significant tourism infrastructure investment, ATEC Managing Director, Felicia Mariani said today.
"It's well known that Perth has a severe accommodation shortage and there has been no major hotel investment in almost 10 years so this is a welcome announcement and I congratulate Crown on their commitment," Ms Mariani said.
"This investment will not only help to alleviate some of the pressure on accommodation in Perth, it will help to open up Western Australia to the international market and ensure leisure tourists are able to get a room in the gateway to the west."
Ms Mariani said the investment in luxury and casino product will also serve Australia well in helping us connect to the fast growing Asian market.
"These are products many Asian visitors are after and this investment will help to expand our industry and help us compete within the South East Asian market.
"While Western Australia has benefited significantly from the mining boom, it has also created challenges for other industries competing with resources and infrastructure, such as tourism.
"We can't continue to put all our eggs in one basket and rely on the economic benefits offered by the mining sector – it's time for us to diversify our economy and build a broader industry base. This investment recognises there are more opportunities in our economy than our natural resources."
The 500 luxury rooms will not only attract well heeled visitors it will have a flow on effect of creating additional space in other properties around Perth.
"While much of our new tourism export opportunity comes from Asia – with a casino being highly attractive to this market – there will ultimately be a flow on effect from this investment for the tourism industry across Australia.
"This investment it will provide much needed additional capacity in Perth as well as opening a door to the near Asia market to come and explore our country further.
"Perth is an excellent gateway city for the Asian market and I believe the tourism industry broadly will benefit from this investment."
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