The West Live is on the road this week, and we’re doing the show today from Albany.

A bit later on we’ll speak to the local mayor and find out what’s going on around town.

On the topic of travelling around WA, we need to speak about what Tourism WA is doing to get interstate visitors to head West.

We spoke on the West Live a few weeks back about a Tourism WA plan to bring Network 10’s current affairs show The Project over here.

Well, now we have a better idea of how much that cost.

It’s been revealed the government’s tourism agency had a budget of 1.5 million dollars to bring Peter Hellier, Carrie Bickmore and co over here for a week’s worth of shows.

We don’t know exactly how much of that money was spent, but you’d have to think a lot of it, considering The Project went up to Broome, visited Margaret River and Ningaloo Reef as well.

So what did WA get out of this big expenditure?

Well, that’s not so clear.

The Project’s ratings have been falling for years, and some of the episodes shot in Perth were actually watched by more West Aussies than Sydneysiders. 

That’s less than ideal.

Ask Tourism WA though, and they’ll tell you  it was a raging success. 

They reckon that if you include supporting media coverage, which means advertising and social media, the promotional value of those Project episodes was worth 8.6 million dollars.

That number is more rubbery than Gumby, but it does follow industry standards for calculating such things.

Tourism WA also reckons that while the Project episodes aired traffic to WA’s flagship tourism website increased by 31 per cent.

That sounds great, but would sound even better if we knew what the number was before the increase.

My guess is, not nearly as high as we’d like it.

With international borders reopening and the airlines falling over themselves to add new routes and offer discounts, it’s going to be harder than ever to attract visitors to WA.

So, I don’t hate the idea of Tourism WA shelling out the big bucks to bring national TV shows to Perth.

But its fair to question whether the Project, with it’s relatively low viewership was worth the money.

The West Live is on the road this week, and we&rsquo;re doing the show today from Albany.
A bit later on we&rsquo;ll speak to the local mayor and find out what&rsquo;s going on around town.
On the topic of travelling around WA, we need to speak about what Tourism WA is doing to get interstate visitors to head West.
We spoke on the West Live a few weeks back about a Tourism WA plan to bring Network 10&rsquo;s current affairs show The Project over here.
Well, now we have a better idea of how much that cost.
It&rsquo;s been revealed the government&rsquo;s tourism agency had a budget of 1.5 million dollars to bring Peter Hellier, Carrie Bickmore and co over here for a week&rsquo;s worth of shows.
We don&rsquo;t know exactly how much of that money was spent, but you&rsquo;d have to think a lot of it, considering The Project went up to Broome, visited Margaret River and Ningaloo Reef as well.
So what did WA get out of this big expenditure?
Well, that&rsquo;s not so clear.
The Project&rsquo;s ratings have been falling for years, and some of the episodes shot in Perth were actually watched by more West Aussies than Sydneysiders.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s less than ideal.
Ask Tourism WA though, and they&rsquo;ll tell you&nbsp; it was a raging success.&nbsp;
They reckon that if you include supporting media coverage, which means advertising and social media, the promotional value of those Project episodes was worth 8.6 million dollars.
That number is more rubbery than Gumby, but it does follow industry standards for calculating such things.
Tourism WA also reckons that while the Project episodes aired traffic to WA&rsquo;s flagship tourism website increased by 31 per cent.
That sounds great, but would sound even better if we knew what the number was before the increase.
My guess is, not nearly as high as we&rsquo;d like it.
With international borders reopening and the airlines falling over themselves to add new routes and offer discounts, it&rsquo;s going to be harder than ever to attract visitors to WA.
So, I don&rsquo;t hate the idea of Tourism WA shelling out the big bucks to bring national TV shows to Perth.
But its fair to question whether the Project, with it&rsquo;s relatively low viewership was worth the money.

If you enjoyed listening to The West Live for your daily news fix, then come and join us over on The Nightly Five.  Host Ben O’Shea continues to deliver punchy news and analysis, in a new podcast to get you in front of tomorrow’s news today!  Subscribe on your favourite podcast player and visit the thenightly.com.au

If you enjoyed listening to The West Live for your daily news fix, then come and join us over on The Nightly Five.  Host Ben O’Shea continues to deliver punchy news and analysis, in a new podcast to get you in front of tomorrow’s news today!  Subscribe on your favourite podcast player and visit the <a href="https://thenightly.com.au">thenightly.com.au</a>

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