Western Australia Holiday-Makers Stay Close to Home Due to Fuel Supply Fears
Petrol Prices
Albany is a popular destination for tourists during Easter school holidays.
In short
Accommodation providers in WA tourism towns say Easter bookings are being cancelled.
Fuel supply is a key concern for those not traveling during the break.
What's next?
The WA government is using emergency powers to help boost fuel supply.
Fuel supply concerns are changing holiday plans, leaving some accommodation providers with empty beds.
Others closer to metropolitan areas are seeing high demand.
John Howe runs short stay accommodation in Albany, which had more visitors in March.
But April and the school holidays are looking different.
Since the fuel problems, we've had cancellations, said Mr Howe.
This month, we're looking at dropping 15 per cent of our bookings.
John Howe has seen a drop in bookings at his accommodation in Albany.
Customers are concerned about refueling during the nine-hour return journey from Perth.
Fifty per cent say fuel security is the reason, they're worried about getting to Albany and not being able to get home.
Not one person's mentioned price, they've all mentioned security.
Thousands of people traveled to Albany for the Lighting the Sound event.
Albany resident Trevor Garland canceled his trip to South Australia due to fuel supply concerns.
We'd planned to head to South Australia, but we've had to rethink that strategy because of the ability to get fuel.
We plan to just go away for a weekend or two in the South West, where we're not using too much fuel and we can get back home.
The state government announced it would invoke emergency powers to force fuel companies to share information about their supply chains.
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Could get worse
Kylie McKeown and her family traveled to Busselton with their caravan.
Ms McKeown said she had booked months in advance and would have lost the booking cost if she had canceled.
She said she was also concerned fuel prices could continue to rise.
We came down because it could get worse.
Kylie McKeown is visiting the South West for Easter.
Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association CEO Sharna Kearney said the region was very busy for Easter.
We're a nice, easy, three-hour drive to the region.
We're going to be less impacted than other regions further afield.
A prolonged conflict in the Middle East could threaten international visitor numbers.
Holidaying close to home
In the Shire of York, the region's three caravan parks are at capacity for the weekend.
Like Margaret River and Busselton, the town's proximity to the metro area has encouraged visitors.
York, 100km east of Perth, is the oldest inland town in WA.
I was joking that our new slogan should be 'The Shire of York — get there and back on one tank of fuel'.
I think we will continue to see an uptick in the number of people coming out here.
Tourism crucial for regions
WA Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall said family holidays in regional parts of the state generated crucial economic activity.
Esperance Pink Lake Tourist Park has also seen a high number of cancellations.
It's worth $140 million to regional WA, just the Easter school holidays and Anzac Day long weekend.
It generates about 800 jobs just off that peak period by itself, and it would be devastating for regional towns if that was to drop away.
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