Clipsal 500

Mr GEE (Napier) (14:23): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. What were the economic benefits of the 2016 Clipsal 500?

Members interjecting:

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) (14:24): They hate good news over that side, sir. I thank the member for Napier for the question and acknowledge the time that he spent working out at Holden. Of course, this year's winner of the Clipsal 500, Nick Percat, is a third-generation Holden worker as well, so great to see him out there triumphing on the Sunday of the big race.

The economic figures have just come in for the Clipsal 500 this year. It's tremendous to see a record figure of $65.6 million of economic benefit into the South Australian visitor economy. We must remember that that money trickles through the taxis, through the hotels and through our retail shops and restaurants, and it's very important in terms of creating jobs and sustaining jobs.

In this year's state budget, we put an extra $35 million in to make sure that we really market South Australia, we get more events to South Australia and we tell the story about the events that we already have. This is the best economic impact that we have ever had. This year, we brought the race in under the Tourism Commission, and we actually had the people who run the biggest bike race outside of Europe running the biggest domestic car race in Australia.

We were out there selling the race for the very first time to a New Zealand market because, of course, we have New Zealand drivers who compete in the V8 Supercars, so we had those over. We saw the numbers up there. We had Air New Zealand putting on bigger planes to make sure that they could get people over, and we want to continue to grow on that.

We think that, while the race is being promoted around Australia, there are some very good ties that we can have not only in New Zealand but in South-East Asia as well. We had people down from Malaysia and Singapore at the event. We had people from tourism companies from around South-East Asia and New Zealand as well, so we really want to grow on that. The $65.6 million is up almost $5 million on the previous year, but we want to see that grow even further.

We had 13,500 visitors come for the three or four days of the race and, of course, it fills nearly every hotel room in Adelaide. We talked to Ian Horne at the AHA and, even with the four new hotels that have come on board with the extra 660 rooms in the past couple of years, the rooms are still being filled, which is tremendous news. Of course, we have six new hotels on the drawing board. They will come online between now and 2018.

I was at a function last night that Airbnb held, talking to some of those people who host visitors to South Australia in their homes. Many of them had visitors stay with them during the Clipsal 500. What we are asking them to do is really upsell and onsell the state so that, if they have people coming from interstate or overseas, they make sure they are across the great attributes of the state, make sure they can tell the story that we have 7 per cent of Australia's population but 80 per cent of Australia's premium wine, and make sure those people get out into our wonderful wine regions that surround our beautiful city.

We want them to onsell the state, to tell people that, if they take a 30-minute flight, they will be in Port Lincoln, which is one of only two or three places in the world where you can get in a cage and come face to face with a great white shark. I think the Airbnb people are here to stay. South Australians are embracing it not only when they travel but when we welcome people to South Australia.

We have 1,000 people in Adelaide who are hosting visitors in their homes. We have 3,000 right throughout South Australia, so it's good to see them setting up in the regional areas as well and really giving people a very, very warm South Australian welcome and giving them an experience not just of staying somewhere but living somewhere as beautiful as South Australia.