Published on Thursday, 18 May 2023 at 12:00:00 AM
Well this just happened – Lucky Bay has won Best Beach In The World 2023 – with Little Hellfire Bay coming in at 28!!
The World’s 50 Best Beaches is compiled by collecting votes from over 750 of the world’s most recognized and experienced travel influencers, journalists and experts, and this year our own region’s Lucky Bay has blitzed the top spot.
The Esperance community gave Council the strong message that Tourism Attractions and Marketing is important to them in the 2021 Community Scorecard Survey. Partnering with Australia’s Golden Outback, Council responded by providing funds for a Tourism Development Manager, with the powerhouse that is Simon Latchford filling the role. Simon has firmly placed Esperance on the national and international stage, using many of his extensive social media, journalism and tourist industry contacts.
We’ve had presenters from the Sunrise TV show searching for words to describe the natural beauty of our region, influencers have come to town and gazed at our beaches in wonder, and the executive team from Tourism Australia have been struck dumb by how deserted and beautiful our most popular destinations are – and they’ve all gone away and talked about it.
The positive difference of having a Tourism Development Manager for our region also showed when Esperance ranked 12th in the TSI 100 Most Popular Destinations - in the world - earlier this year. As a result of the visit from Tourism Australia’s top staff, a separate booth for Esperance at the 2023 Australian Tourism Exchange, Australia's largest and most important tourism exhibition, was secured. This exhibition brought together around 2,300 delegates from around the world - valuable exposure for our local tourism industry.
As the icing on the cake, the most recent tourism data available shows the sentiment of Extreme Desirability for Esperance as a destination is up, driven by younger west Aussies. This upward trend has been strong enough to make Esperance the second most considered holiday destination in WA - behind only Margaret River, a tourism destination closer to Perth, and with years of marketing behind it. As an indication for the future, tourism awareness of Esperance is considered to be low – so imagine the coming benefits for our local tourism industry as this is improved!
TLDR: You wanted improvements in Tourism Attractions and Marketing - Council delivered.
To tell the Shire and Council what’s most important to you right now in 2023 fill the current Community Scorecard Survey out online here, pop in to Shire reception at 77 Windich St for a paper copy, or email shire@esperance.wa.gov.au for queries. The survey closes on Friday 26 May, so get your skates on!
18/05/2023
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