SOUTH AUSTRALIAN VISITOR AND TRAVEL CENTRE

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (11:12): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Industrial Relations, representing the Minister for Tourism, questions about the impending closure of the South Australian Visitor and Travel Centre.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Over the last week my office has received a great deal of feedback from tourism operators and constituents with regard to the SATC's plan to close the South Australian Visitor and Travel Centre. I would like to read an excerpt from an email sent to me and copied to the Hon. John Rau by one of the operators. The email stated:

Let me say from the outset that we are absolutely 100 per cent opposed to the idea of closing the centre. We are only a small operator in the overall aspect of things but we are owner/operator run and so therefore have a very good idea of what is happening day to day. I believe we are very well respected within the SATC and the respect is reciprocal with the many people we deal with in the commission. However in this case I believe we have a much better idea than the people that made this decision, I would suspect they have no idea of the real needs of an independent voice and service they provide to the travelling public. We do receive substantial bookings through the centre and it is an important part of our business.

As I said, I have received a lot of feedback from people all over the state who are concerned by this decision. My questions are:

1. Can the minister advise the council about the consultation process that the SATC undertook with operators (if any) before arriving at this decision?

2. Did anyone from the SATC discuss with the minister any other possible options to keep the centre open so that it could continue to provide a valuable service and keep some 20 staff members in work?

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for Gambling) (15:13): I will refer those questions to the Deputy Premier in another place and bring back a response in relation to communications with the South Australian Tourism Commission. I would say that the government is certainly supportive of the tourist industry and has done a lot of work over a long period of time to ensure that South Australia has very important events and attractions which bring tourists from interstate and overseas to South Australia.

Those include things like the Tour Down Under, the Fringe, the film festival, WOMAD, Clipsal and a large number of other events that the government supports to ensure that people are attracted to South Australia and spend their money here. In relation to the issues raised by the honourable member, I would point out that it is obviously very important that any investment by the government, any expenditure of taxpayers' money, is done in the most effective way, ensuring that we do what is most appropriate and suitable to attract tourists to our state.

While I do not wish to reflect in any way on the good work that people in the information centre have done over many years, I am sure honourable members can appreciate that there has been a significant change in the way that people approach their travel plans. I am sure most of us have booked flights, hotels or travel online. A lot of us would arrange travel plans very differently from the way we might have done 20 or 30 years ago, when the most common way was through travel agents and for information centres to provide the information that was most necessary.

That is not to say that there is no role for them or that it is always going to be the case that certain facilities are not the best value for money, but certainly the Tourism Commission needs to make an assessment, as does the government, about the best and most effective way to use government resources in attracting tourists to South Australia, and what is the most effective way to do that will change from time to time, particularly in a climate where technology and the internet are now playing such an important role in the way people book their travel and spend their tourist dollar.

The government will continue to support the tourism industry and the great attractions in this state that are unmatched anywhere else, including the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier, which is a particularly unique South Australian attraction. I cannot think of an equivalent to it anywhere in the world.

The PRESIDENT: The Tantanoola caves.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: The honourable Mr President does contradict me and say the Naracoorte caves are superior.

The PRESIDENT: Tantanoola.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: I will acknowledge that the Naracoorte caves are on the World Heritage List, as I recall, but I could be wrong about that, and the Tantanoola caves are certainly worth seeing as well. We do have great attractions all over this state, and they can be in regional areas as well as in the city or the urban fringes.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: List them all—it would take two minutes, I reckon.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: The honourable member is asking me to list them all. I certainly could do that, but I do not think it is necessary for me to repeat every attraction the state has, but we do have many. It is important that the South Australian Tourism Commission use its resources wisely and in the most appropriate way to attract tourists to South Australia, and that will change from time to time.