News

The numbers are in for the month of December in the City of Perth and they have never been better!

• Total spend for the City of Perth was $400 mil for Dec 2023 (an all-time record) – an increase of 19.1% v Dec 2022 where the total spend was $336 mil
• All up – more than one million people (approx. 1.25 million) visited the City during the festive period (month of December). The corresponding figure for December 2022 was 900,000.

Those people numbers were boosted by:

• The Rio Tinto Christmas Lights Trail, a record all-time attendance, up 18.5% on last year to 460,000 people (up from 384,000 2022)
• New Year’s Eve at Elizabeth Quay presented by Roy Hill up 50%v Dec 2022 to 50,000 people.
• The Carnival Amusements  Elizabeth Quay Fun Fair and Cardile Fireworks  Summer Series light shows pulled 120,000 visitors this season, up 30% on 2022.
• And Carols in the Park presented by True North was up 50% on 2022, a capacity 12,000 people at Supreme Court Gardens.

These are extraordinary numbers for Perth and I couldn’t be prouder.

On a per capita basis on every measure, total spend, people numbers and office occupancy, Perth was the number one capital city in Australia during December.

Coming out of COVID people were trying to tell me the city was finished, now we’re number one in the country. More than 1.2 million visitors in December.

This is a stunning result and caps an incredible turnaround. Our city has met the challenge of the shopping centres head on and triumphed.

I’ve had hundreds of people tell me there is an incredible buzz back in the city – it reminds them of when they were kids. The city is once again the place to be and I’m absolutely thrilled our tireless efforts to promote central Perth as a destination is being rewarded.

Our team has built a free events program and created an atmosphere which has drawn people in in record numbers, there’s more to do, a greater variety and the growth of our Christmas Lights trail and summer series of light shows at Elizabeth Quay has been phenomenal.

I want to thank Roy Hill, Rio Tinto and Lotterywest in particular for helping us deliver these world class events.