Government Marketing and Communications

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:37): My question is to the minister.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Is it supplementary?

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: It is a supplementary. Can the minister now elaborate for us whether the criteria for the success of a marketing campaign are hits on websites and platforms, rather than actual visitor numbers coming to the state? Does he have any indication if visitor numbers in South Australia have increased since the 'old mate' campaign? Can he perhaps also give us a breakdown of the demographics of that campaign?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for his question. As the honourable members all know, our target is $8 billion of visitor spending by 2020. It's a target that was embraced by the former government, and the current government embraces it. The first measure we use on success is visitor expenditure. About a month ago, we announced that it's at $7.6 billion, the biggest it has ever been in the history of this state. In actual fact, I don't have the exact figures with me today, but—as members opposite have interjected—some of the international figures are down a little bit, but the visitor spend is up, and intrastate and interstate visitations are also up.

For the honourable member's benefit, we measure it by actually striving to achieve our goal of $8 billion by 2020 and $12.6 billion by 2030. We are well on the way to achieving that goal. Campaigns like 'old mate', which are a little bit different and a little bit edgy—and I think all members recognise that—give us a chance to actually, if you like, stand out in the crowd a bit and attract attention. The theme of that whole ad was: don't leave it too late; come to South Australia before it's too late. Of course, we saw, during the AFL grand final, that 'old mate' came back with a couple of his old mates, to the tune of The Boys are Back in Town—another great success.