Regional Tourism

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister verify reports that seven out of 11 regional tourism managers resigned in recent months, and have those vacancies been filled yet?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:52): I would have to take the question on notice to understand the exact number, but I do not employ regional tourism managers. Of course, the Tourism Commission supports them, but often they are employed by their local tourism regions, and the RDA's involved, the council is involved. I have made no secret of my dedication to championing our regions and to look at those areas, which is why I have done the regional review. I was so pleased when Mid North and Southern Flinders, with Yorke Peninsula, made the decision to be the pilot zone. They did that because they want to build tourism in their area. The previous model was not achieving what we wanted to do.

I was particularly motivated by seeing what happened during COVID, when South Australians discovered their own backyard at levels they never had before, and we saw an increase in the spend in our regional areas. What I wanted to do as minister was to consider what we can do to make sure our regions shine. When I talked to stakeholders, there were very mixed responses as to what that regional tourism contact person did. What we did after last year's budget was to increase the amount of money, because we felt that that needed to happen. We looked at the marketing expenditure and we committed to $2 million over a period of time to do that regional review and add additional money.

To me, we are nothing without our regions. Often people come into Adelaide and it is a catalyst but then they push out into the regions and they love what they see. They love connecting with nature, and we want to make sure that is happening, but we want to be collaborative. That is what these zones will do—they are regionally lent, because we know that people will be ready and will put their hand up and say, 'We want to be a regional zone.' It is just as we did in the Southern Flinders and Yorke, because we want to work together.

We want to think about tourists and we want to think about these regions and the products and the experiences we have had, as a tourist does. We want them to come to an area but we want them to stay longer and see what it has to offer. I think we can do it better and that is why we have been supporting these regional tourism zones, and that is why we want to support regional tourism contact officers in the work that they do.