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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-05-15 Daily Xml
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Question Time

International Airline Traffic to Adelaide

Mr DIGHTON (Black) (14:19): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier provide an update to the house on international airlines choosing Adelaide as a destination?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:20): I thank the member for Black for his question. The member for Black well appreciates the importance of having an economy that provides opportunity to as many people as possible. This government has been unapologetic in seeking to attract investment in and around the tourism sector, and it is very much showing dividends. The Minister for Tourism and her team have diligently gone about making sure that we are as attractive a destination as possible for international markets, and one of the things that has underpinned that is international connectivity. I very much look forward to an announcement being made officially, not too long after question time, about how that may yet improve.

Over the course of the last 12 months, we have seen international visitation coming through our airport grow by 9.5 per cent—9.5 per cent in a period of 12 months. That is growth that would be envied around the country, and it is directly attributable—not exclusively but able to be directly attributed—to the work that has been undertaken in terms of government policy in this area, and we know that there is yet more to be achieved in this regard.

With the advent of United Airlines as the first airline in the history of the state to travel directly between Adelaide and the US market, we can see growth on the back of that. We also know that our events calendar, along with the work around other investment attraction activities has lent itself to seeing more people internationally looking at South Australia as a destination to visit, as a destination to invest in, or as a destination to study in. That is something we are steadfast in our commitment to growing.

It's important that people understand why. The first element is this: the tourism industry is labour-intensive by nature. You can't really do tourism without people. You can't have a computer algorithm and you can't have a machine that provides customer service. That is only done by people and the hospitality sector, and the nature of the warmth and generosity of South Australians lends itself to being something that we do well.

Actually even more powerfully than that, we know that people travelling internationally, in particular to our state but also domestically too, lends itself to gaining a different insight to what is occurring here on the ground in South Australia in terms of its attraction as an investment destination. The performance of the South Australian economy in areas that lend themselves to international investment attraction, particularly around how our economy continues to lead the world in decarbonisation, is important. This is because people are more likely to invest in a location if they have been on the ground and were a witness to the activity that is occurring.

It was one of the things that was discussed about the power and the potential around COP, which South Australia is very much in the mix to be able to host in the second half of next year. That is about getting more international visitation to our state, not just so that they can have a good time and fill the hotel rooms and the bars and the restaurants, as valuable as that is, but more because it gives them an insight into the activities that are occurring in our state's economy, which is then more likely to lend itself to investment.

Our strategy is deliberate. Our purpose is clear. We want people travelling to South Australia from outside our borders, not just interstate but overseas. The statistics that have been released at the beginning of this month by the airport show a 4.6 per cent growth over the course of a 12-month period across the financial year and 9.5 per cent growth year on year. It speaks to excellence and to the policy effort resulting in outcomes in a way that means so many other people are beneficiaries.

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