BAROSSA VALLEY MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Tourism.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned a second time.

Mrs GERAGHTY: My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister inform the house about the South Australian Tourism Commission's new Barossa marketing campaign?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:54): I thank the member for her question and her great interest in the wine and tourism sectors. Of course, one of the key priorities of this government is premium food and wine from our clean environment. I was pleased to be in the Barossa a couple of weeks ago to launch the latest South Australian Tourism Commission tourism ad, which will go to air in the Eastern States. The hook this year is the Barossa. It's a $6 million campaign, which will be aired throughout the Eastern States on television and in cinemas. South-East Queensland will also be heavily hit in this market.

We want to bring people to South Australia, and we want to make sure that everyone around this nation knows that the food and wine capital of Australia is indeed South Australia. So, the hook is the Barossa, but we want to make sure that they spend more time here in South Australia as well and go to the Adelaide Hills, down to McLaren Vale, up to the Riverland, down to Kangaroo Island, the Coonawarra—all of our wonderful food and wine producing regions.

I know that when the $6 million campaign last year, made by the same filmmaker, was based on Kangaroo Island, we had people turning up in the Barossa, McLaren Vale and, indeed, Adelaide, who had come to South Australia on the back of that Kangaroo Island ad. So, what these ads are doing is making people in the Eastern States take a different perspective, a different look, at what South Australia has to offer, then go online and have a look at the region that's being promoted, but then they are going to take the time to come to South Australia and work out what else they are going to do while they're here.

Nick Cave provided the soundtrack for the ads from his 1994 hit, Red Right Hand. There are lots of images there that probably aren't what vegetarians are looking for. We've got the things that South Australia is very well known for in terms of meat and vegetables—all that stuff, as I said, from our clean environment. What we are renowned for now around Australia is the premium food and wine from our clean environment, so we want to carry that over into the tourism sector as well. Some of the feedback that we've had about the ad includes:

'Sensual, gritty and compelling, the South Australian Tourism Commission's latest TV commercial offers a new take on our most famous wine region.' David Washington, InDaily;

'Wow. The new Barossa ad is seriously cool.' Jessica Braithwaite, Channel 10 Adelaide;

'LOVING the new #Barossa #Tourism ad @southaustralia! This is cooler than cool.' Councillor Tim Pfeiffer, City of Marion;

'Barossa's new ad. Love it!' Australia's Wine Business Magazine.

I know that, on the night that we launched the ad, we had a function for about 40 Barossa tourism operators. They were pretty impressed with it as well and really looking forward to the sort of increase in accommodation, bookings and tourists that we saw on Kangaroo Island last year.

We had a 13 per cent increase in accommodation on Kangaroo Island after the KI ad went to air around Australia last year. We are looking for a similar result for the Barossa this year and, as I said, we want all the benefits to flow out from the Barossa as we attract people from around Australia to come and visit our great state.

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, do you have a question?