TOURISM

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:37): My question is directed to the Minister for Tourism. Minister, could you inform the house about the state of the South Australian tourism industry as we near the end of 2013?

The SPEAKER: Plenty of scope there.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (15:38): Yes. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and to the member for Ashford for that question. I know it is a question that is dear to the hearts of many people opposite who represent wonderful tourism regions throughout this state. In the words of Eddie McGuire (maybe to paraphrase him a little bit), what a big year it has been for tourism in South Australia.

On 1 February, Emirates started flying direct into Adelaide on a daily basis, upping from their initial flights which started on 1 November last year. By the time they hit their first-year anniversary this November, they had brought 90,000 people into Adelaide at a capacity rate of 80 per cent, which is just brilliant. Our overseas numbers had been boosted by 9 per cent by the end of June 30. We now have 83 per cent more international airline seats coming into South Australia than we did two years ago, the day that Jay Weatherill became the leader and Premier of South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The minister will not refer to the Premier by his Christian and surname.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Sorry: the Premier. It is an outstanding achievement, though—an 83 per cent increase. South Australia now has Australia's fastest-growing international airport. We have got AirAsia X: for the first time, we now have a budget international carrier coming into South Australia; they connect to 80 different cities throughout Asia and they are bringing thousands and thousands of tourists into our great state. They are also promoting places like Port Lincoln—the ad for Adelaide actually has the big shark image on it—and they are wanting to get people out to Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln, which is a great boost for our regions.

We won the best ad in the world—a great achievement—in Cannes for our Barossa ad, and we will follow it up next year with an ad about Adelaide and the new Adelaide Oval. We have welcomed the 16 interstate AFL clubs to South Australia, taken them on a tour of Adelaide Oval and pointed out the great attractions of the Barossa, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. We took them down there. They are all guaranteeing that they are going to bring their corporates here next year, as well as at least 1,000 fans per club. When we look at Collingwood, they took 6,000 up to the Gold Coast this year for their game against the Suns. Geelong took 5,000 up there. There are millions and millions of dollars in economic activity that will come off our half a billion dollar investment in Adelaide Oval.

In terms of cruise ships, last season we had 16, up from hardly any cruise ships just a decade ago. We had 16 last year; we have 29 coming here over this coming summer. The great thing is we are getting them out to the regions. There will be seven cruise ship visits to Kangaroo Island this year, and what we know is that each time a cruise ship lands in Kangaroo Island, $200,000 is injected directly into the local economy, so that is a fantastic achievement. There will be a trip to Robe—one of the cruise ships will be calling in there next Easter for the first time—and two visits to Port Lincoln. As I mentioned earlier, I was in Port Lincoln earlier in the week, and they were delighted that their first cruise ship—

The SPEAKER: I'm glad they were delighted, and the minister has more than adequately answered the question. The leader.