CLIPSAL 500

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister inform the house of the success or otherwise of the Clipsal 500?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:46): I thank the member for Lee for his question and I am happy to report that it is all success and not otherwise. The Clipsal 500 was a fantastic event again this year and I would like to thank all those people who were involved in putting on a great show: from the Motor Sport Board through to the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, the volunteers who were out there as marshals, and all the other jobs that needed to be done to put on such a successful event.

This year's total crowd over the four days was 286,500, which was up on last year's figure by about 23,000; it fell just short of the all-time record of 291,400 back in 2008, but those of us who were there on Sunday know that the full house signs went up midway through the afternoon as the capacity crowd hit 95,000. It was tremendous to see some spirited racing out on the track. Of course, this year for the first time we welcomed Nissan and Mercedes to join the Ford and Holden armies of supporters. As a hometown Holden fan, it was great to see Holden's success out there.

As well as being a wonderful sporting event, of course there is lots of great music that goes with the Clipsal 500, including the local favourites the Hilltop Hoods, and the big concert on Sunday night with the Kiss concert. I hear that about 40,000 people went down there; I was following it on Facebook. I caught up with the member for Hammond today, who is probably the biggest Kiss fan in this place. Thirty-three years ago he was at the Unmasked Kiss concert at Adelaide Oval, Kiss's first Australian tour. I pay tribute to the member for Hammond for his great patronage of the Kiss concert, as well as the Clipsal.

The wonderful thing about Clipsal is that it sells out most hotel rooms in Adelaide—in fact, nearly all the hotel rooms in Adelaide—and it gives those hotel operators the opportunity to charge a premium. As tourism minister, I am keen to see that we have thousands of people coming from interstate to enjoy Adelaide and the carnival atmosphere that we have here, because you walk outside the track and you have festivals happening everywhere. People were telling me that they came from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and they were just loving the fact that everything was in the one place, and they really appreciated the fact that South Australians are so warm and welcoming.

I have just been up the mall at lunchtime to talk to some of the people who are here on the big cruise ship and the same thing—from Europe and the States—they are saying is that Adelaide is a tremendously clean city and that they have had a wonderful warm welcome here. To everyone involved in Clipsal and to anyone who has been welcoming people to our great state over the past month, continue the good work; we have WOMAD this weekend and plenty more festivals to come.