Interim Tourism boss named

The state government has announced Department of Transport boss Richard Sellers as acting director general of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation after Stephen Wood was forced out last week.

The government said last week that it was not happy with the way the tourism portfolio was being managed and thus had agreed to part ways with Mr Wood.

Mr Sellers has been in charge of the Department of Transport since September 2016, following the retirement of Reece Waldock.

He previously served as director general at the Department of Mines and Petroleum.

Transport Services managing director Nina Lynne will be the acting Department of Transport boss on an interim basis.

Premier Mark McGowan said Mr Sellers would work on making structural changes within the department.

The department was created last year as part of a process that involved the amalgamation of multiple agencies.

The tourism industry has been unhappy with the new structure, saying Tourism WA needs to be an autonomous agency to arrest the slide in WA’s market share.

Recent data from Tourism Research Australia showed  Western Australia was the only state in the country to register a decline in international tourist numbers and spending in 2017 despite the national market recording steady growth.