Great response to save season

The Kununurra Visitor’s Centre has been met with an “overwhelming response” to its Save Our Season campaign, set to inject some much-needed cash into struggling local businesses.

Last week The Kimberley Echo revealed the latest effort planned to “save” the East Kimberley’s tourism season, with Kununurra set to welcome 70 of Perth’s top company CEOs for two days of tours, dinners and “bucket-list” experiences only the region has to offer.

The partnership between the State Government, Australia's North West Tourism and the Kununurra Visitors Centre (KVC) was launched to help the region’s tourism operators, who were among the hardest hit in the State by COVID-19 restrictions imposed earlier this year.

While it cannot yet be revealed which big-wigs will be touching down in town this Friday, KVC manager Colleen Quirk said 65 bookings for the tour were confirmed as of Tuesday morning.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response to the invitations and were inundated with responses within hours of it being announced,” she said.

“We have also been handling a lot of calls from people coming up in August and September on the cheap airfares.

“There’s not really been any clear direction specifically about which companies they’re coming from, but we expect they will be the likes of CEOs from Horizon Power and the Water Corporation.”

The State Government’s partnership with Virgin Australia to offer discounted fares to Kununurra and Broome was part of the initiative.

Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said the industry leaders would be encouraged to share their experience with their friends, family, staff and wider business networks by utilising the Wonder Out Yonder campaign.

“This initiative will provide a much-needed immediate boost to the local tourism industry, while helping to spread the word throughout WA of what Kununurra has to offer,” he said.