Regional Tourism

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Will the minister outline what government financial support is available to South Australian regions for marketing purposes?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:51): I thank the member for Wright for the question. I am pleased to announce today the Regional Consumer Cooperative Marketing Fund for tourism in South Australia. We all know that 23 per cent of South Australians live in regional South Australia, but 44 per cent of the tourism spend is actually in our wonderful region. So, we are announcing this fund today. It will have $220,000 in there. Each of the 11 regions can apply for grants of up to $20,000 and a minimum of $5,000, which will have to be matched with funding from those tourism regions.

We have spent a lot of money with the regions. We have trebled the amount of money that the regions have got for their tourism bodies in the past two years. Of course, the Treasurer is going to have more to say this afternoon about our tourism spend in South Australia, and I am pleased to see that the Premier and the Treasurer have got behind the tourism industry with this afternoon's budget.

I encourage those opposite who are in any of our wonderful tourism regions to talk to their local tourism bodies wherever they may be. We will, of course, be writing to them with this news, but we would like everyone to be enthusiastic and spread the word because the more we can promote our regions in terms of tourism the more jobs we can create.

We want to grow the tourism industry from $5.2 billion a year to $8 billion by 2020. That is going to require a lot of heavy lifting, not just by government but in partnership with all these hardworking, small to medium-size businesses—these businesses that do so well, these businesses that put so much of their personal life on the line in terms of the hours that they have to plough into their business, in terms often of the security that they have put up from their own personal assets to make sure that they can provide the sorts of tourism facilities that people from interstate and overseas are going to want to see.

It is an ambitious goal and, if we reach that $8 billion figure by 2020, it is going to mean an increase in tourism income into our regions of about $1.1 billion. So, it is a big step up. It is a lot of money into the regions, a lot of great economic boost. I think the figure is that for every $160,000 spent in the tourism sector one more job is created. The more we can all spread the word about South Australia being a great place to visit and our 11 regions being fantastic spots to go and spend some leisure time or, indeed, to head for conferences or major events then the better our tourism industry is going to be.

The regional organisations that are eligible to apply are: Adelaide Hills Tourism; Tourism Barossa Inc.; Regional Development Australia Yorke & Mid North (including the Clare Valley); Regional Development Australia Whyalla & Eyre Peninsula; Fleurieu Peninsula Tourism; Flinders Ranges & Outback SA Tourism; Tourism Kangaroo Island; South-East Local Government Association; Murraylands Tourism Partnership; Destination Riverland; and Yorke Peninsula Tourism.

Before I wrap up, I would just like to thank all of those opposite who represent tourism regions and, of course, the member for Giles in Whyalla, who is a great advocate for tourism, and the member for Frome, who has some wonderful tourism places in his electorate. Thank you for the bipartisan cooperation that we get. The member for Mount Gambier and I have worked closely together, and I think the South-East tourism body is doing a lot of great work down there. It was terrific to be down there a few weeks ago with you in your office talking to tourism operators about the really great work that is happening there. The more we all chip in together—

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. The member for Morialta.