Rockingham's popularity as a tourism destination with Western Australians is on the rise, after data revealed a significant increase in domestic day trips to the City.
The data comes from Tourism Research Australia, which indicates domestic day trips to the City increased by an unprecedented 33 per cent over the 2019/2020 financial year.
With COVID-19 halting interstate and international travel for a significant portion of this financial year, sandgropers took the opportunity to rediscover Rockingham with domestic day trips increasing by 252,803 visits.
The result is particularly significant for the Rockingham region, given domestic day trips to Greater Perth, Mandurah and Fremantle all decreased for the same period.
City of Rockingham Mayor Barry Sammels said the increase in visitor numbers was one of the City's Tourist Destination Strategy's key success indicators.
"The Tourist Destination Strategy (2019/2024) was adopted by Council in May 2019 to effectively and measurably promote Rockingham as WA's premium coastal destination, and this new data is an exciting indicator of how our City's tourism sector continues to grow," he said.
"The day trip market was identified within the strategy as one of Rockingham's key strategic markets. To capitalise on this the City launched a series of new destination marketing initiatives including the Rediscover Rockingham brand.
"Going forward the City will continue to focus on attracting day trippers to Rockingham and will also aim to increase overnight stays by ensuring marketing campaigns focus on packaging the amazing tourism experiences available with accommodation."
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