Tourism

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister update members on how the Marshall Liberal government is investing in its key growth sector of tourism to market and showcase South Australia to the world?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:31): I thank the member behind me for his ongoing interest. It is this government's focus on strategic targeted investment in key sectors that will drive economic and jobs growth. Tourism is absolutely vital to South Australia's economy. We know that the visitor economy is currently worth some $6.8 billion, and we are on track to reach our $8 billion target by 2020.

We have a target to reach an additional 10,000 jobs by 2020, and we are setting another ambitious target of 16,000 additional jobs from 2020 to 2030. As a government, we are absolutely committed to regional growth as part of our overall economic prosperity. We can't underestimate the impact that these jobs will have on sustained and vibrant regional communities. After all, 42 per cent of our visitor economy spend is in the regions, despite only 23 per cent of our state's population residing there.

As I continue to say, with our state transitioning into a high-tech agriculture and advanced manufacturing space, tourism is the only regional industry that continues to be labour intensive and deliver more jobs to regional South Australia. This is why our government is committed to taking action and investing in areas that will grow our tourism industry.

In the 2020 plan, and again in the 2030 tourism sector plan, this is an industry-driven plan. The number one priority is driving demand, that is, marketing our wonderful state to the world. In a demonstration of the government's commitment to tourism, I announced last week that the 2019-20 budget, to be handed down on 18 June, will provide an extra $10 million a year over three years from 2021 from the Economic and Business Growth Fund for marketing South Australia as a premier tourism destination.

This is in addition to the $10 million already budgeted for in 2019-20 and a further $3 million for the recent domestic Rewards Wonder winter marketing campaign across digital media, television, cinema, print and outdoor billboard advertising to boost visitor numbers during our cooler months. It is a deliberate and targeted investment by the Marshall government aimed at building the state's visitor economy by promoting South Australia to the world.

Marketing is critical to driving awareness and appeal from our state to an influential visitor audience. The funding will be used by the South Australian Tourism Commission for marketing campaigns with a strong digital focus, targeted at increasing primarily international visitation but also interstate tourism numbers in the key markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. I will relentlessly continue to advocate for the industry and deliver more funding as it becomes available.

A fortnight ago, I met with the regional tourism chairs to discuss what the challenges are and how the state government can support tourism regions into the future, because we know that, for our regions in particular, the success of the sector is critical to regional employment and general community wellbeing.

The Joyce review identified tourism as being a critical part of the state achieving a growth rate of 3 per cent per annum. We as a government are delivering on our agenda of economic growth for this state, and we are starting with a set of plans that are industry driven. The tourism industry has articulated its priorities in order to grow, and the Marshall Liberal government is delivering on those priorities.