Sporting Events

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister explain how the state government's investments in tourism are helping to attract world-class sporting events?

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) (14:46): I thank the member for Kaurna for the question. Of course, the tourism sector is worth $5.4 billion to the South Australian economy each year. We want to grow that to $8 billion by 2020.

This year, in the state budget we put in an extra $35 million to ensure that we can reach that figure of $8 billion. It is going to be a tough figure to reach, but we saw Qatar Airways announce this week that they are flying into Adelaide from 2 May next year—voted the best airline in the world in 2015 and known as the five-star airline as well. It is great to see that the money that we're spending is being picked up by international operators, the very high-level international operators. We are seeing that with more hotels being built, we are seeing that with more seats coming into Adelaide on these international flights.

What we need to do to make sure that grows even further is to get more events and to market the state, of course. When we talk about events, Adelaide is a terrific host city for a variety of events. I'm really pleased to inform the house that some of the world's best competitors are in town for the world duathlon championships, which I will open tonight down at the Rotunda. For those who don't know about duathlon, it's like triathlon without the swim leg: it is cycling and it is running. We will be showing off the magnificent Riverbank Precinct, Montefiore Hill, the Adelaide Oval. It is just going to be a terrific course for the 1,400 competitors who are here competing in a variety of duathlon events for prize money of up to $100,000.

It is the biggest duathlon event ever held in the Southern Hemisphere, and we are really pleased that it is the first time in six years that the organisers, the International Triathlon Union, have actually staged an event in Australia. It is a terrific event, and I encourage people to get out there and cheer on those people who are competing. It is expected to inject about $3 million into the state economy. As I have said many times, the best money that we can have in our economy is the money from people interstate and overseas. It is great to grow our economy.

Other events coming up that we have managed to secure for Adelaide include the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which my good friend the Minister for Trade launched during the week. He was out there with a couple of Ayrton Senna's race cars. It was good to see them back on the grid down at Victoria Park. That's on this weekend. The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is on from 18 to 25 October, from Darwin down to Adelaide, and the Pacific School Games is one of those mass participation events that will bring about 4,000 competitors. These are big money earners for the state, with economic benefits estimated at $13.6 million. That, of course, follows on from the Australian Masters Games which I spoke about on Tuesday and which injected, we reckon, about $10 million into the economy with 10,000 competitors and officials.

Sometimes we go for the events that bring the elite athletes down, sometimes we get those mass participation ones. Having all these students from around the Pacific coming into Adelaide is just going to be terrific, and they will bring family members with them and, hopefully, tell people when they go back home to wherever they come from what a wonderful time they had in Adelaide. I know that Adelaide and South Australian people are always very good to throw out the welcome mat and show people a good time.

We would love these kids to go home and bring their family back for a holiday sometime because return visits, just like conventions and conferences, are where you really get the economic benefit.