Public votes sought to help Kalgoorlie-Boulder secure Top Tourism Town crown

The community is being asked to rally around Kalgoorlie-Boulder to help it win the title of WA’s top tourist town.

The city is one of three finalists in the 2026 7NEWS Top Tourism Town Awards category, alongside Geraldton and Kununurra.

The public can cast their vote on the town they believe should win the title, with the votes being combined with those from an industry panel of judges to decide the winner.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Visitor Centre general manager Donna Malec said the city often made it to the final, but it had been years since it won the crown.

The centre entered a video spruiking the city with the slogan “Expect the unexpected” for this year’s awards, which Ms Malec said was inspired by the feedback of many visitors to the town.

“That’s the thing people always tell us when they come in, they are like ‘Oh we didn’t expect to see all this, there is so much more here than we thought’, so we came up with ‘Expect the unexpected’ which really sums up the town,” she said.

Ms Malec said winning the award would provide recognition for all the hard work not only the visitor centre, but all businesses and operators contributing to tourism in the city, put in every year.

The winning destinations will go into a national competition against winners from other States for the chance to be named Australia’s top tourism town, small tourism town, or tiny tourism town.

Voting closes May 1 and can be done online at toptourismtownwa.com.au.