A new chairperson and board changes preface a fresh era for Tourism WA.
It's hard to describe the recent leadership and board overhaul at Tourism WA as anything other than a hard reset for the state’s tourism marketing body.
As significant as the board changes were, however, they may have been overlooked amid the news of Di Bain’s appointment as chair, which led the state government’s media announcement towards the end of June.
The accompanying overhaul of the board, involving the departure of five commissioners, appeared further down the statement, in paragraphs seven and nine.
Those leaving included experienced non-executive directors such as Linda Wayman, Valerie Davies, and Tracey Horton, as well as industry veteran John O’Sullivan, a former managing director of Tourism Australia.
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In turn, just two names were put forward as replacements: former COMO The Treasury general manager Anneke Brown, and current Burswood Park Board chair Janelle Marr.
That meant the Tourism WA board, which can at any time comprise up to 10 members, had been cut to just six commissioners.
While some media outlets took to labelling the departures as a mass exodus for an embattled board, most of the departures were readily explainable.
That’s because Tourism WA’s board members are appointed to four-year terms, with all but two of the commissioners who resigned in June completing their first or second term.
Ms Horton, who is also national director of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, was halfway through her second term, while Mr O’Sullivan, who is based in Sydney as chief executive of ASX-listed Experience Co, had only ever agreed to serve a single-year term.
Meanwhile, Nathan Harding, the commission’s chair between 2017 and 2021, and before that a commissioner of five years, had cited his being offered a significant, personal business opportunity as reason for his early departure.
Elsewhere, Perth Airport chief executive Kevin Brown and former Tourism Council WA president Manny Papadoulis had their terms extended, while Kia Dowell was confirmed to stay in the job until at least 2022.
Still, it’s easy to read into the departures as part of growing pains for Tourism WA since it was caught up in the machinery of government changes implemented in the months after Labor won the 2017 state election.
Those changes were instrumental to Premier Mark McGowan’s election pledge to substantially reduce the state’s public debt burden.
In practice, though, they led to significant disquiet across the public sector, with high-profile causalities including Kim Papalia, who resigned as the state’s road safety commissioner, and the directors general of the Department for Child Protection and the Disability Services Commission.
About two-thirds of the state’s government departments were abolished as a result, with Tourism WA (then the Western Australian Tourism Commission) lumped in with the state’s commerce and state development agencies to create the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (JTSI).
That coincided with the resignation of Peter Prendiville, the agency’s chair between 2011 and 2017, along with three other commissioners, including deputy chair and Little Creatures Brewing co-founder Howard Cearns.
When the merger was finalised in July 2017, what resulted was an agency of 313 staff, $179 million in revenue (in the most recent financial year, per Data & Insights), and a tangled web of leadership with major structural changes for Tourism WA.
Many, such as former premier Colin Barnett and the opposition’s tourism spokesperson Vince Catania, have been outspoken in their criticisms of Tourism WA’s place in that bureaucracy, stemming in part from changes to its leadership roles.
Under the original legislation that constituted Tourism WA, implemented following Brian Burke’s election win in 1983, the chief executive was to be employed solely to lead the statutory authority and report directly to the board.
However, about six months after the machinery of government changes, JTSI director general Rebecca Brown was simultaneously tasked with serving as the Tourism WA chief executive following the resignation of Gwyn Dolphin.
Any leadership pressures were later alleviated with the hiring of Brodie Carr as managing director about 18 months after Mr Dolphin’s resignation.
Mr Carr would end up resigning two years into his five-year term, citing a desire to move closer to his wife’s family in France.
That meant Ms Brown, who was also seconded to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in the 12 months leading up the most recent state election, was expected to manage the goings-on of JTSI, Tourism WA, and report to seven ministers on day-to-day operations for significant periods of the past four years.
Derryn Belford, who has served as Tourism WA’s executive director of destination development since 2013, has filled in on an acting basis since September, with the state government having closed applications for the $227,819 per year role earlier this month.
Ms Bain, who chaired Activate Perth between 2018 and 2020 and was elected to the City of Perth’s newly constituted council in October, was not available for an interview for this article.
In written response to questions, however, she said Tourism WA had restructured its marketing, industry, and aviation divisions to help attract top talent and develop a strong working relationship within its leadership team.
“This new structure has allowed us to increase our focus on partnerships, industry and the development of our brand marketing strategy,” Ms Bain said.
“The majority of positions have now been filled with excellent candidates and we’re confident we have the best team of all the state tourism organisations.”
Many in the state’s embattled tourism industry will welcome steady hands at Tourism WA, given the difficulties for the sector caused by border closures and lockdowns during the past 18 months.
These issues have flared considerably in recent weeks, with COVID-19 outbreaks in Queensland, NSW and South Australia resulting in WA being locked out to about 85 per cent of Australia’s population throughout June and July.
Much of the impact has already been felt across industry, with data from Tourism WA showing hotel occupancy rates have fallen to as low as 20 per cent in 2020, and tourist visits dropping by about 18 per cent in the 12 months since the pandemic began, according to numbers from Austrade.
“We are committed to the industry’s resilience and to regaining our pre-COVID-19 momentum and have delivered a range of targeted marketing and support initiatives for geographical areas and industry sectors particularly affected,” Ms Bain said.
“This has included grants, voucher programs, discounted airfares, along with time-specific, incentive-driven marketing.”
Intrastate marketing campaigns have been instrumental to supporting WA tourism during the pandemic. The ‘Stay, Play and Save’, ‘Wander Out Yonder’ and ‘Relook and Book’ campaigns have variously subsidised flights and hotels for domestic tourists in a bid to stem the bleeding.
That’s in conjunction with support for regional operators, such as airfare subsidies for Perth visitors travelling to Broome, Kununurra and Exmouth, and special return airfares for visitors from Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne travelling to the state.
These campaigns appear to have had some effect, with WA’s share of tourists shrinking by the smallest percentage of all states and territories in the year to March 2021.
Ms Bain said that, while many businesses geared towards out-of-state tourists had struggled and required government support, she hoped WA could retain a significant proportion of the intrastate market it had gained over the past 18 months.
“While COVID-19 has presented obvious challenges for the tourism sector right around the world, there has been some notable upside in WA after the initial shock,” she said.
“Western Australians who might not have travelled locally for years or decades have discovered or rediscovered the wonders of their backyard.
“Anyone who travels around the state knows there are huge numbers of people travelling and frequenting tourism and hospitality businesses.”
Outside of the immediate threat of the pandemic, Tourism WA has also supported the regions, including Geraldton, with a project manager to be based there for the next 12 months as operators recover in the aftermath of Cyclone Seroja.
Tourism WA has also kept its attention on international markets, with a $16.5 million contract awarded to UK-based SLC Representation and Germany-based Conjoint Marketing Group to develop and implement tourism marketing campaigns.
That contract was awarded in June and will last for two years with a possible three-year extension.
In addition, Ms Bain was keen to emphasise the Tourism WA’s ‘Adventure Awaits’ social media campaign as keeping the state top of mind for international tourists while the country is shut to overseas visitors.
When asked how her experience with Activate Perth informed her approach to branding and marketing at Tourism WA, Ms Bain cited her experience instigating collaborations and partnerships as the key factor.
“I know from experience, that for branding and marketing to succeed it has to have ‘buy-in’ from industry,” she said.
“That’s why the ‘Our Story’ project involved consultation with hundreds of industry leaders and operators to form the basis of Tourism WA’s new global marketing campaign, which is continuing to be developed and will be launched when the time is right.”
