Western Australia has reached the magic million number for international visitors in a calendar, off the back of strong growth in the Aboriginal tourism sector.
New data from Tourism Research Australia showed WA had its highest-ever number of international visitors in its history, with a record-breaking 1.024 million overseas visitor arrivals in the 12 months to October 2025.
The number of visitors smashed WA's pre-COVID-19 benchmark of 996,000 arrivals, marking a full tourism recovery from the pandemic in the west.
WA was the nation's top-performing state for international tourism recovery, recording Australia's biggest year-on-year percentage increase in overseas visitor numbers and fully recovering from COVID-19 a full two years ahead of the TRA's forecast for Australia as a whole.
The Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Committee (WAITOC) said the interest and participation in Aboriginal tourism experiences from the international market continued to grow, and the latest visitor results provided the niche sector with a great base to expand.
"Welcoming more than one million international visitors is a fantastic milestone for WA, translating directly into jobs and business growth," WAITOC operations manager Gabby Simoni said.
"This sets the stage for the next phase of development for the broader visitor economy and Aboriginal tourism businesses across the state."
TRA's most recent data on First Nations tourism across the nation specifically, showed a landmark year for the sector in the 12 months to December 2024, with more than three million trips; the highest ever annual number on record.
Domestic travellers comprised 63 per cent of those, while 37 per cent of the trips were by international visitors.
In WA, recovery of the international market followed the interstate sector bouncing back to full recovery in March 2023 following the pandemic.
TRA's data showing milestone visitor numbers were achieved after Tourism WA's global tourism campaign 'Walking On A Dream', celebrity-led marketing campaigns like 'Drive the Dream' with Formula 1 star Daniel Ricciardo and a suite of campaigns with global trade partners that increased international bookings to WA.
The growth in international visitor numbers was in part driven by continued investment elevating Aboriginal tourism, and increasing visitor participation in Aboriginal experiences.
WA's aviation network has also expanded, with the state now connected to 20 global cities serviced by 24 international airlines.
International seat capacity into WA hit 131 per cent of January 2019 levels this month, while interstate seat capacity topped 110 per cent.
WA Tourism Minister Reece Whitby said more than a million international visitors in a year was an incredible achievement but the work to lure travellers west was just getting started.
