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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-08 Daily Xml
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South Australian Tourism Commission

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister update the house on the campaign for tourism recovery in the river regions?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:14): I thank the member for Badcoe for the question and her ongoing interest in Tourism South Australia and, of course, the recovery of the river regions.

We have taken a big step forward now that all the restrictions have been removed for river activities. We are now seeing the return of operating watercraft, swimming and canoeing, but we are still asking people to take care when on or in the water. Floodwaters are now slowly starting to recede, allowing for areas on higher ground to begin opening in time for the Easter long weekend. Campsites and walking trails have opened for day trips already.

We encourage people, as we always have, to go up to the river and spend their time there. The Riverbend Caravan Park will be fully open next month, alongside the BIG4 Renmark, which opened last month. Lake Bonney is also open, with more campsites opening around the lake in addition to the Discovery Parks Lake Bonney.

In the Mid Murray Council there was good news yesterday with the Pretoria Hotel reopening and the Proud Mary starting her first cruise last month, so we have passengers enjoying the river again. By April, almost 8,000 cabin beds and camping sites are expected to be available in parks across the Riverland and the Murray River Lakes and Coorong regions. This is in addition to more than 900 rooms across hotels and motels and around 260 rooms in almost 80 villas, home stays and world-class retreats.

The Tourism Commission is continuing to monitor the reopening of businesses through its Flood Recovery Working Group and through their regional tourism managers. I want to thank Bill Nehmy and Pamela Canavan who have been working tirelessly in their regions supporting operators and businesses at a very challenging time.

All of this is fantastic news as we launch our river recovery vouchers and our Rise Up for our River marketing campaign. The campaign will run across radio, television and press, as well as social media for the rest of the year. The campaign will be run in conjunction with the river recovery vouchers, with three rounds announced for tourism operators to take advantage as their businesses are ready for operation.

Feedback from operators has been optimistic and enthusiastic following the campaign workshops held by the Tourism Commission in the regions earlier this month, so much so that the latest numbers provided by me are that there are 90 operators who have expressed interest in putting applications in for the vouchers. That's a fantastic number. It shows that positivity and support for these vouchers. That provides us with about 180 tourism products and experiences and it's great news for the region and it will be a great shot in the arm.

We are going through the final approval process, so that will include things like caravan parks, hotels, villas, glamping, wineries, walking tours, river cruises and houseboats starting in round two, to name a few.

Of course, there is still some work to do and we will spend the next couple of months on-boarding operators and developing the products before the voucher ballot goes live on Monday 27 March at 9am, closing at 10pm on Wednesday 29 March. There will be a randomised ballot process so people have plenty of time to register during those times. Of course, you can go and have a look at southaustralia.com\voucher as well. Just for some details, the ballot will open, there will be a ballot draw on 30 March, and the booking period is 30 March to 28 April for a travel period 31 March to 29 June.

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