Tourism

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:31): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is supporting recovery of the tourism industry from COVID-19?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:31): I thank the member for Elder for her excellent question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: This year has been particularly tough on the South Australian tourism sector, especially those people who are in regional South Australia.

Ms Hildyard: Then why did you cut the funding?

The SPEAKER: Member for Reynell!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Regional South Australia has been doing it tough. We know that they have had dry and drought conditions for a long period of time. Earlier this year, I travelled to some of those regions and I could see firsthand the results of some of those dry conditions, those drought conditions, over a long period of time. We know that there have also been very tough conditions in many parts of South Australia related to bushfires, and then COVID-19 has come along. I think the people of South Australia are well aware that this government is supporting businesses through this tough time with more than $1 billion worth of support and stimulus into the South Australian economy.

In addition to this, individual agencies and departments are putting together their own support packages, and one of those areas is the area of tourism. The South Australian Tourism Commission has established a $5.7 million financial support package to assist tourism operators to get through this COVID-19 pandemic and rebound strongly out the other side. That is our focus. I am advised that almost 500 applications were received for the small grants program, which is five grand or 10 grand, and I know that 364 of those have already been processed and the money has been received by people in that sector.

In addition to that, we have put together a Regional Events Grant Fund. We know that many regional events in South Australia have had to be cancelled. Sometimes they had already incurred costs associated with setting up these events, and so I know that these grants have been well received by regional communities that had events planned and cancelled through no fault of their own.

We also had $10,000 grants which were available to regional tourism organisations so that they could start to do the planning for what they would do to support operators within their regions post COVID-19. One of the key issues that we want out of COVID-19 is not just to survive it, not to scrape across the line, but to come out stronger than before. These supports that we have put in place are supported also by the broader program, where we are providing $10,000 cash grants to small businesses in South Australia, and many of them are going to businesses in regional South Australia.

To further support these businesses that are in the tourism sector, the government is rolling out a digital training program designed to upskill tourism businesses to market themselves online. In fact, talking about stronger than before, many regional tourism operators have told me that they have developed skills in terms of digital marketing which they didn't have before. They are using this time as best they possibly can to market their products and their services so that when we do come out of COVID-19 we will come out stronger than before.

As at 7 May, 597 businesses had registered for that digital transformation program, which is being delivered by three different providers. In addition to that, we have provided a program of business support for tourism operators. This is being delivered by Deloitte in South Australia. The first two webinars were held in April, with more than 500 participants on those webinars. The topics covered included employment and staff engagement, managing cash flows and business continuity.

On Friday, we announced South Australia's Roadmap for Easing the COVID-19 Restrictions, and I know many, many regional communities were delighted to know that we are encouraging people to get back to the regions, to take up some accommodation and to spend money in those regional economies as soon as possible.