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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-05 Daily Xml
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South Australian Tourism

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. How is the government supporting the state's visitor economy in the coming months?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:53): Thank you very much, member for Adelaide. What an exciting announcement we had today, that the Matildas are coming to play at Adelaide Oval for the very first time. We are expecting a huge crowd of supporters coming from all over the country to fill our hotel rooms, our restaurants and our bars.

Football Australia, in partnership with the South Australian government, have secured the match against China on 31 May. It is a prime time slot on Friday evening. It will be one of the last opportunities for fans to see the Australian women's national football team prior to playing in the Olympics. This is set to be a major boost for South Australia, driving visitation to our city at the start of winter, which is often a more challenging time for us. We have seen Australians get behind the Matilda's in fantastic numbers, selling out time and time again. I have no doubt at all that they will do it again here in Adelaide. We can have 53,000 people attend and I think we will achieve that.

I am also excited, as the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, that we are going to be playing China in this international friendly. Having China's women's team here means we have eyes on Adelaide, and that is going to help and be a win for tourism and trade. Visitors from China spent $77 million in South Australia in the year ending September 2023, making it the state's fourth-largest market. When China last played in Adelaide, it was a sold out match against England at Hindmarsh Stadium as part of the FIFA Women's World Cup. At that time, almost 54 million viewers around the world watched that match here in Adelaide. That made it the highest reach for a single match anywhere in the world for that tournament.

The South Australian government is a big supporter of football and women's and girls' sport in South Australia. Ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup the state government—with my colleague the Minister for Recreation and Sport—made an $18 million commitment to create better accessibility to sport for women and girls. This adds on to the fantastic support we had for women's change rooms when we were in government previously. We need to support women and girls to play, and continue to play, at all ages. Football has a proud history in South Australia, with more than 40,000 people playing across 290 clubs.

We are keen for major events and we work as a team. Let me acknowledge the member for Mawson as the chair of the Major Events Attraction Committee. We are looking at how we can fill out our calendar. What we do know is that people are thinking about South Australia differently. What they know is that we do immersive events better than anyone. We hear this feedback: whether it's the rugby here, whether it's going to be the football or, coming up very shortly, the Gather Round. People love the location, they love the ease of access and they love that they feel welcomed here with the best food and wine in Australia.

We are going to be bringing new things as much as possible. We want to fill out our calendar but, more importantly, let's have people talking about our state, time and time again, booking their flights, staying here, going out to our wine regions and having a fantastic time. We cannot wait for this game. We are so thrilled. Everyone is going to be there on 31 May.

The SPEAKER: I see the member for Narungga.

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