Legislative Council Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1) 52 1 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Tourism, South Australia TOURISM, SOUTH AUSTRALIA The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS Legislative Council TOURISM, SOUTH AUSTRALIA The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:22): A supplementary question: given that South Australian intrastate tourism is down by 25 per cent after 10 years of a Labor government, will the minister guarantee that the focus is going to be back where it needs to be and we are going to recover that ground? The Hon. G.E. GAGO Legislative Council Minister for Agriculture Minister for Forests Minister for Regional Development Minister for Tourism Minister for the Status of Women TOURISM, SOUTH AUSTRALIA The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:23): I have already spoken about the tourism plan for South Australia in this place. I have spoken at great length about this here before. I have talked about interstate trends and the fact that we have set up a marketing campaign, the Best Backyard campaign, to help address those trends. It is interesting to see that people are always wanting to talk down South Australian tourism, and we see the opposition wanting to do that as well. They want to come into this place and talk down South Australia. As I said, we've got a targeted— Members interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. G.E. GAGO Legislative Council The Hon. G.E. GAGO: —campaign to address that issue, and I have just spent time outlining our Best Backyard campaign. The good news story is that, for the 12 months ended June 2011, South Australia attracted 365,100 international visitors, which is an increase over the last 12 months. As far as domestic travel goes, obviously we are working hard on that. South Australia's performance for the past 12 months (ended June 2011) has improved somewhat. Our overall visitors were up 2.5 per cent, and I have been advised that our total travel expenditure for both domestic and international (ending 2011) was 4.6 billion, up 2 per cent on a year ago. You can see that there are lots of good news stories in our tourism industry, but what do we have the opposition doing? Whingeing, whining, carping and talking down our state. He should be ashamed of himself.