The City of Swan is committed to developing sustainable economic growth for its residents and ratepayers so they can enjoy a thriving and vibrant City.
We’re doing this by investing in the City to attract new businesses, improve employment opportunities closer to home and boost community wellbeing.
This gives our community convenient access to shopping and a range of local services, including health and education.
The Economic KRA covers three main outcomes:
- A great place to visit
- Sustainable business growth
- Accelerated economic and employment growth.
| Objective | Measure | Target | How we are tracking |
|---|---|---|---|
|
E1.1 Actively support and develop thriving local businesses and centres |
Percentage of businesses that indicate they like owning a business in the City in 2023 |
Maintain or increase the two-year rolling average (baseline 79%) |
86 per cent Trend +4 per cent on 2020/21 results |
| E1.1 Actively support and develop thriving local businesses and centres | Percentage of businesses that indicate it is easy to do business with the City in 2022/23 |
Achieve at least 50% |
62% Trend -4% on 2020/21 results |
|
E2.1 Advocate and attract business and investment opportunities |
Value of non-residential private sector investment in the City in 2022 |
Maintain or increase the two-year rolling average (baseline $104m) |
$476.8m Trend +160.62% on 2020/21 results |
| E2.1 Advocate and attract business and investment opportunities | Gross regional product in 2022 |
Maintain or increase the two-year rolling average (baseline $9.4b) |
$11.37b Trend +16.26% on 2020/21 results |
|
E3.1 Strengthen the capacity and integration of the tourism industry |
Annual visitors to the Swan Valley in 2019/20 |
Increase the two-year rolling average (4.25m baseline) |
5.4m Trend +27.1% on baseline |
| E3.1 Strengthen the capacity and integration of the tourism industry | Annual visitor expenditure to the Swan Valley in 2019/20 |
Increase the two-year rolling average ($426m baseline) |
$430m Trend +0.9% on baseline |
| E3.1 Strengthen the capacity and integration of the tourism industry | Percentage of visitors to the Swan Valley who rate their experience as positive overall in 2021/22 |
Maintain the two-year rolling average (93% baseline) |
87% Trend -6% on 2019/20 results |
A great place to visit
The Swan Valley is the oldest wine region in Western Australia and one of the biggest tourism destinations in Perth.
It attracts interstate and international visitors who enjoy the Swan Valley’s vibrant produce and experiences.
We ensure business and tourism growth across the City by:
- Managing the award-winning Swan Valley Visitor Centre
- Maintaining our Swan Valley website and social media accounts
- Delivering destination marketing campaigns
- Promoting tourism businesses through showcases and events.
We ensure tourism growth across the City of Swan by managing the award-winning Swan Valley Visitor Centre, delivering destination marketing campaigns, and targeting returning international visitors and day-trippers.
We recently launched an enhanced destination website for the Swan Valley and an extensive digital advertising campaign to promote the region.
We provide support to tourism businesses in the Swan Valley and surrounds by promoting them to interstate and international audiences through initiatives such as our Singapore showcase, Canberra advocacy, annual Entwined in the Swan Valley and Harvest events, and ongoing campaigns to drive visitation.
There is room for internet connectivity improvement, so the City has been lobbying for an nbn Business Fibre Zone in the Swan Valley to boost business and visitor experience.
- 5.4M annual visitors to the Swan Valley in 2019/20 (target 4.25M)
- $430M annual visitor expenditure in the Swan Valley in 2019/20 (target $426M)
- 87 per cent of visitors to the Swan Valley rated their experience as positive in 2021/22 (target 93 per cent).
In addition to the natural assets that draw visitors, we have a range of successful annual events and campaigns that we will continue to deliver.
Our events include Harvest, Entwined in the Swan Valley and the family-friendly Avon Descent Festival.
We are committed to exploring new visitor servicing initiatives and investigating new technologies to increase customer satisfaction and visitation.
Sustainable business growth
The City maintains a supportive environment for local businesses to help them grow, thrive and reach their full potential.
We boost business capacity by:
- Delivering professional development opportunities
- Providing welcome packs for new businesses
- Facilitating local, interstate and international business opportunities
- Sponsoring small business awards programs
- Collaborating with the State Government and other local governments on promotions, projects and initiatives.
We boost business capacity across the City by providing a range of professional development opportunities including our Access and Inclusion pilot program.
We provide a welcome pack for new businesses, facilitate business opportunities locally, interstate and internationally, and sponsor a business awards program to recognise and encourage success.
We also collaborate with the State Government and other local governments to support other businesses, including our collaboration with Tourism WA on the development of the Swan Valley Old Vine Charter and Tourism Trail.
We collaborate with local governments through the Link WA alliance to support the freight and logistics sector, and through the Perth Hills Tourism Alliance to promote Gidgegannup as part of the Experience Perth Hills brand.
We also encourage feedback through a range of channels, including our annual Community and Business Perception Survey, so we know where we can make improvements.
- 86 per cent of businesses indicated they liked owning a business in the City in 2023 (target 79 per cent)
- 62 per cent of businesses indicated it was easy to do business with the City in 2022/23 (target 50 per cent).
The City will continue to boost local business through grants, support and sustainability initiatives such as the Buy Local program and Small Business Friendly Local Government Program.
We will also review our Draft Business Support and Enhancement Plan to investigate ways to improve our support.
Accelerated economic and employment growth
We have plans and actions in place to ensure economic development and the creation of more job opportunities to support our growing community.
Infrastructure is key to attracting and supporting business, and generating jobs growth.
We support economic and employment growth by:
- Advocating and lobbying governments for major infrastructure investment
- Supporting implementation of WA’s growth plans
- Upgrading key infrastructure such as Stock Road, Bullsbrook
- Promoting our five employment nodes.
The City has a thriving economy, with many employment opportunities across a range of industries.
Infrastructure is key to attracting and supporting business, so we advocate and lobby government for major infrastructure investment and development opportunities to ensure convenient access to services for our community.
We promote our five employment nodes (Malaga, Ellenbrook, Bullsbrook, Hazelmere and Midland) as attractive locations for businesses through marketing campaigns, including Our Town television episodes.
We recently upgraded Stock Road, Bullsbrook, improving connectivity for our community and opening a pocket of nearby land for future industrial development, which will be a great win for the local community and economy.
We support the implementation of the State Government’s growth plans, including the Midland Health Precinct, METRONET, Midland Station relocation and airport connections.
- $476.8M value of non-residential private sector investment in the City in 2022 (target $104M)
- $11.37B worth of transactions from the sale of products and services in the City in 2022 (target $9.4B)
- 78,167 local jobs and growing (up 7.6 per cent on previous year).
The City will continue to support and develop our five employment nodes, and review the New Business Attraction and Opportunities Plan to boost employment opportunities for our community
