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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-27 Daily Xml
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World Tourism Day

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:31): Thank you, Mr Speaker, we will have another crack. My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Noting that today is World Tourism Day, can the minister update the house on the most recent visitor economy statistics for South Australia?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hartley well knows the standing orders.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:31): World Tourism Day is a fantastic day for us to celebrate our tourism industry but, more importantly, the people of our state who dedicate themselves with their own blood, sweat and tears and invest and work within tourism.

Mr Tarzia: Biggles took his time to go to Doha and everywhere else.

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated. Member for Hartley, please depart the chamber under 137A for the remainder of question time.

The honourable member for Hartley having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Tourism in South Australia represents about 8 per cent of our economy, so it's an incredibly important part. Nationally, it's our fourth largest export. When we have World Tourism Day, it also gives us a moment of reflection because we know it has been incredibly difficult for those in tourism and hospitality during COVID.

Let us recall that we had a low of $4.4 billion and a high, before COVID, of $8.1 billion—such a significant cut to what people were experiencing for the visitor economy here in South Australia—so I am very pleased to say that our year-end figures of June 2022 were at $6.2 billion. This is cause for celebration as we have it return to normality, and this is only representing one-quarter of the year where we had some increase in international tourists coming here.

I am pleased to say that South Australia is above the national average of recovery. We are at less than 23 per cent prior to COVID; nationally, we are down 30 per cent. So we can see that we have recovered quite well. In particular, I have seen that our regions—which South Australians have been discovering in their droves, and of course our interstate market has increased dramatically—have benefited during this time.

Today, we recognise the people who are involved. I would like to recognise the Minister for Small and Family Business. We just held a round table yesterday that included tourism, and we were reminded that for such a long period of time people were in survival mode. This return to normality will take time. Making decisions around rostering, getting those skilled people back into the industry, are all challenges that people face on a day-to-day basis. While it's good news still, we must be focusing on the needs of the industry.

Our events are a real catalyst for people to visit, and we know that Illuminate was an incredible success this year, building on the initial 2021 new event that we have. Of course, the double-header of rugby was one of those excellent events when we had about 8,000 people from interstate coming to stay here.

We know we have our traditional events like the Fringe and the Festival that draw people here, and I am pleased to say that the Tour Down Under will be back in its traditional format early in January. We know that it's a huge drawcard for interstate and international, but it's really exciting to see so much interest. I am particularly thrilled about the elite women who will be here on equal pairing with the men for the very first time. We are really excited about that.

It's important as we build the tourism economy because it leads to investment in our state, and we have seen some recent new hotels—whether it be the Sofitel, the Indigo and of course now the rebuilding of the Southern Ocean Lodge. On a recent visit to Kangaroo Island I had a chance to see the building firsthand and, I have to say, an absolutely stunning view. They are increasing to 54, the number of people they can have every night and it's going to be a great international drawcard.

Late last week, I talked about Virgin Australia starting up an international flight from here to Denpasar in Bali. What that will mean by the end of this year is that we have seven companies flying international coming back to Adelaide. We were about 50 per cent of flights internationally prior to COVID.

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