Declining tourist numbers will see popular skydiving business Skydive Geronimo leave the shores of Busselton to operate their business solely at Rottnest Island, where tourism is currently booming.
Skydive Geronimo business owner Amy Stutt said after starting the business in 2010 they had seen a downward trend of interstate and international visitor numbers since 2015.
Ms Stutt said the business had been struggling and they could not rely on the local market because repeat business in skydiving was rare.
Also affecting their decision to leave was an increase in permit fees and the need to reinvest $150,000 to build a new hangar at the delay-plagued Busselton Margaret River Airport.
She said while they were supportive of the airport redevelopment and the benefits it would deliver, it did not make financial sense for their business.
“If we did not have those pressures we would probably continue to operate.”
Ms Stutt said they were feeling nostalgic and had such a wonderful time skydiving over the Busselton Jetty for the last eight years.
“We have taken more than 14,000 people skydiving in Busselton and we had nothing but wonderful support from the community,” she said.
Ms Stutt said Rottnest Island had seen huge growth in visitor numbers in recent years, and their business was seeing the positive effects of that.
Ms Stutt said it would be business as usual until March 31, and the team would love to see as many community members as they could throughout the next month.
City of Busselton director of community and commercial services Naomi Searle said it was unfortunate for the business and their employees, and also sad to see the tourist offerings available in the city decline.
“The city has invested $2.6 million toward the development of a dedicated general aviation precinct as part of the airport expansion project,” she said.
“Like other lessees, Skydive Geronimo had their existing hanger leases bought back by the city at market value price. The city has no control over the cost of constructing a hanger which is driven entirely by the market.”
Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association chief executive officer Sharna Kearney said 2018 was challenging in terms of visitor numbers and spend, buy that 2019 data was showing signs of recovery.
Ms Kearney said visitation from all markets, except intrastate day-trippers to the Margaret River region was markedly up for the year ending September 2018 but international visitation was still lagging.
