CRUISE ship visits to Western Australia have helped the state to record numbers of overseas visitors in the 12 months to October 2025
The state government’s efforts to attract major cruise lines saw cruise tourism now at 160% of pre-COVID levels, contributing to WA’s highest number of international visitors in the state's history, welcoming more than one million international visitors in the 12 months.
New data from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) shows WA received a record-breaking 1.024 million overseas visitor arrivals in the year ending October 2025, breaking the pre-COVID-19 benchmark of 996,000 arrivals.
A state government media release claims the number marks the state's full tourism recovery from the pandemic.
“WA was the nation's top-performing state for international tourism recovery, recording Australia's biggest year-on-year percentage increase in overseas visitor numbers and fully recovering from COVID-19 a full two years ahead of the TRA's forecast for Australia as a whole,” the release said.
The government claims the milestone visitor numbers have been achieved after Tourism WA rolled out the award-winning global tourism brand Walking On A Dream around the world, followed by celebrity-led marketing campaigns like Drive the Dream with Daniel Ricciardo, and a strong suite of conversion campaigns with global trade partners which boosted bookings to the State.
“The growth in international visitor numbers has also been driven by major events like WWE: Crown Jewel and the Bledisloe Cup, continued investment into elevating Aboriginal tourism, and increasing visitor participation in Aboriginal experiences, as well as attracting major cruise lines.
“The state's aviation network has also expanded, with WA now connected to 20 global cities and serviced by 24 international airlines. International seat capacity into the state hit 131% of January 2019 levels in January, while interstate seat capacity topped 110%.”
Tourism is the state's fifth largest employer, supporting more than 120,000 tourism-related jobs in 2023-24 and more than 30,000 tourism and hospitality businesses across WA.
Tourism Minister Reece Whitby said the figures showed the government’s investment in tourism is working.
“Whether its promoting WA abroad with an award-winning brand, securing blockbuster events, increasing aviation connectivity, creating sustainable Aboriginal tourism experiences, or activating the regions through new cruise and accommodation options, the visitor economy is growing," Mr Whitby said.