TOURISM Council WA chief executive Evan Hall has called for strong local and state government support for visitor centres following the release of a report into the sustainability of WA's visitor centre network.
The report entitled The future of Visitor Centres in WA was commissioned by Tourism WA and shows Visitor Centres are under strain despite their strong contribution to regional economies.
Visitor centres across WA are gathering in Kalgoorlie this week to consider the report.
"Visitor centres are under strain from declining revenue, which is putting regional tourism dollars at risk," Mr Hall said.
"Tourists who use visitor centres stay twice as long and spend twice as much.
"Tourists spend about $50-$100 extra in the local region as a result of dropping into the local visitor centre."
Mr Hall said unfortunately these tourism dollars are spent in the region and not in the Visitor Centres so they were chronically short of cash.
"There are too many visitor centres just scraping by with volunteer staff and meagre funding from local government," Mr Hall said.
"Local and state government should invest in their visitor centres, but they should also expect reform of the visitor centre network.
"We welcome royalties for regions funding for regional visitor centres that has been put aside in the state budget.
"This funding should focus on reform to build a network of sustainable Super Visitor Centres that deliver high quality accredited services to tourists."
