What happened
Rapid fuel cost increases at the start of the 2026 dry season affected self-drive tourism in the Kimberley and Pilbara, with tour operators and roadhouses reporting a sharp increase in booking cancellations for the 2026 peak season.
The Cook Government responded with several support measures within weeks of each other:
- Kimberley Season Pass, 50 per cent off tours and experiences, live from 6 July and usable from 13 July to 31 October 2026, with a stated aim of helping drive over $1 million in additional bookings.
- WA Dream Pass, an intrastate marketing campaign running 20 July to 15 August, promoting close to 120 exclusive travel offers, and reporting more than 7,000 active users and over 1,200 redemptions since launch.
- Dream Road Trips: Explore WA, a $300-for-$200 caravan and holiday park voucher, with a purchase window closing 31 August and redemption available until 31 December 2026.
Acting Tourism Minister Dr Tony Buti and Acting Regional Development Minister Don Punch tied the campaigns explicitly to supporting regional operators through the fuel-cost squeeze, against a backdrop of $19.5 billion in Western Australian visitor spend in the year to March 2026.
MLSP analysis
The following is MLSP’s interpretation of the above, not reported fact.
Three stacked programs inside six weeks is not routine tourism marketing. It is a response to a specific, identified problem: the cost of getting to regional Western Australia rose faster than visitors could absorb.
That distinction matters for accommodation. The pressure here is on the cost of travel itself, not on discretionary spending generally. Visitors have not stopped wanting to travel; the arithmetic of a long self-drive trip simply changed.
This is where accommodation mix becomes relevant to a park’s resilience. A park whose revenue depends entirely on guests towing their own van is directly exposed to fuel costs, because fuel determines whether that trip happens at all. Fixed-roof accommodation broadens the range of guests a park can serve. It does not make a park immune to a downturn, but it does reduce dependence on a single travel mode.
What park owners may consider
- Support programs of this kind are time-limited. Program dates and eligibility should be checked against the relevant government source rather than assumed.
- Accommodation mix affects how exposed a park is to travel-cost shocks, though it is only one factor among many in a park’s commercial position.
- Sustained government intervention indicates the state is actively supporting regional visitation, but it is not a guarantee of future demand at any particular site.