I love Perth, of course, but I would never expect it to become a tourism hotspot, simply because its isolation means it's never really "on the way" to anywhere. But apparently, despite economic doom and gloom around the world - a little bit less so in Perth, still more buoyant from the mining boom - the powers that be reckon the future of Perth looks bright and a heap more hotels are needed.

A study just commissioned by Tourism WA says that from 2010, Perth will probably need at least 300 more hotel rooms to be added every year to keep up with demand. Over recent months, hotel occupancy rates across the city have been around 84% so that's one of the factors behind this prediction.

The interesting bit is that the study looked at current city buildings that could be converted into hotels and narrowed down the choices to 24 buildings across the CBD. So I'll be keenly watching to see just what developments take place. And I'm very keen to know if all these extra visitors - tourists and business travellers alike - actually turn up!