Take a drive along Perth's scenic Mounts Bay Road any day of the week and you will see queues of smartly dressed Asian tourists squashed together along a narrow riverside footpath waiting to snap the perfect selfie.

The unlikely star attraction is a quaint, formerly derelict, 90-year-old blue boathouse.

In a social media age where likes are treated almost like currency, the boathouse — or, to use its official name, the Crawley Edge Boatshed — is cashing in.

The hashtag #blueboathouse has tens of thousands of Instagram posts to its name and the structure has become an Australian icon through its inclusion in advertising campaigns geared to Asian tourists.

Perth's blue boathouse has become a favoured location for Instagram selfies. ( Instagram: leolfelix )

Malaysian tourist Casey Koo said she first saw the boathouse on a popular Chinese blog and travelled to Perth specifically to take a photo with it.

"The view is so perfect and it's so relaxing and calm," she said.

"I think a lot of Chinese blogs have introduced people to the blue boathouse which is why they come here and we just follow."

Tania from Thailand said the boathouse was popular in her country with young couples participating in pre-wedding photo shoots.

"People will come here before they get married and get really fancy pictures," she said.

"Mostly it's from Instagram — people would say if you are visiting Perth, you should go to the blue boathouse, Fremantle and Kings Park."

Malaysian tourist Casey Koo said she travelled to Perth to see the boathouse. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

The power of the hashtag and the 'Asian selfie spot'

Edith Cowan University digital marketing researcher Violetta Wilk has used the boathouse as a case study for her research into online brand advocacy and organic social media marketing.

Dr Wilk said the phenomenon of the viral marketing term "Asian selfie spot" — also known by the unfortunate acronym ASS — and hashtag searches had bestowed the boathouse with its prestigious social media status.

"Hotspots like this tend to happen organically — trends arise in social media through the engagement, the likes, shares and comments," she said.

"We fuel those trends and they spread like wildfire on social media."

Dr Wilk said it would be difficult to recreate and market a tourist destination as popular as the boathouse.

"The organic nature of social media, whereby you and I share our brand experiences and destination experiences, certainly applies here," she said.

"People want show off the fact that they've been there.

"Tourists from Asia really enjoy this location and love taking selfies here.

"It's not uncommon to find queues of people lining up just to get a perfect selfie.

"It's the power of the hashtag — we're able to tag content that allows us to bring our conversations together in the digital space around a common theme or phrase."

$400,000 toilet to meet demand

The City of Perth recently announced it would spend $400,000 on a toilet block on Mounts Bay Road to cater to tourists visiting the boathouse.

Every day a regular procession of tourists walk down its slim jetty to capture their selfie. ( Supplied: Adrian Pelliccia )

Dr Wilk said it was a small price to pay for the tourism dollars it attracted to the state.

"This global destination brand awareness that's being created by the blue boathouse is just priceless," she said.

"$400,000 is a very small investment for the amount of global exposure and for the opportunity to present Perth on a global scale."

Swan River 'landmark' once faced demolition

The owner of the Crawley Edge Boatshed, Tom Nattrass, said his grandparents paid five pounds for the structure in 1944.

A brown Crawley Edge Boatshed pictured in 1958, prior to the current renovations. ( Supplied: Tom Nattrass )

"Over the last 80-odd years the boathouse has actually been rebuilt a few times," he said.

"It's had four refurbishments and on each of those occasions there's been some key aspects changed, but it's always been roughly the same shape and certainly in the same location.

"In 2001 the boatshed was very run down — the asbestos was fraying and had holes in it, the jetty had planks missing and it was very unsafe. In fact Government authorities were very seriously threatening to have it removed and demolished."

Tom Nattrass takes a break from renovation work on the boathouse in 2015. ( Supplied: Tom Nattrass )

Led by Tom's father and former Perth lord mayor, Peter Nattrass, the family began to rebuild the boathouse and remove the asbestos exterior.

"Rather than be understated, we thought we'd just go out there with a big bold colour," Mr Nattrass said.

The Crawley Edge Boatshed, as it is officially named, underwent a renovation which embraced the bright blue colour. ( Supplied: Siobhan Pelliccia )

"To be honest it was a family friend, former foreign minister Julie Bishop, that came up with the idea to paint it that iconic blue, so full credit to her.

"We followed through with that and I think that was the catalyst, together with smartphones and social media, for it to become the icon that it has become today — a landmark on the Swan River."'

Kids play on the jetty of the Crawley Edge Boatshed in 1988. ( Supplied: Tom Nattrass )

Boathouse becomes stock smartphone wallpaper

While teaching English in Vietnam, South Perth resident Brian Powell was given a Huawei smartphone by one of his students.

He was surprised to find it came pre-loaded with a picture of the Crawley Edge Boatshed.

Brian Powell shows off the stock wallpaper photo of the Crawley Edge Boathouse on his Huawei smart phone. ( Supplied: Brian Powell )

"Of all the iconic images in this world, it's nice to know there are many millions of people walking around with a little piece of WA in their pocket," he said.

"It was even more special for me because I can see the boatshed from my apartment in South Perth."

Mr Nattrass said his family had been surprised by various requests to use the boathouse, including one for a photo shoot with Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor.

He said images of the boathouse had been used in marketing material for Singapore Airlines, Qantas and in Japanese advertisements.

"Social media and smartphones [gaining popularity], Facebook and Instagram have really taken it to a new level," he said.