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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-08 Daily Xml
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TOURISM

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Tourism a question about intrastate tourism.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: I refer the minister to an article in The Advertiser on 21 October regarding the announcement of a $1.4 million advertising campaign to encourage South Australians to holiday within their own state. The article highlighted the fact that intrastate tourism has dropped by 24 per cent over the past decade. Intrastate travellers make up as much of the market share as do interstate and international travellers to this state. The Sunday Mail AFTA Holiday Expo, held in February, attracts over 10,500 visitors, and research has shown that 96 per cent of these visitors intend to travel within 12 months.

Unfortunately, the South Australian Shorts book, which contains advertisements and discounts for participating tourism operators in this state, was not available (as it regularly is) to the 10,500 visitors during this year's expo. Surely, if the government was serious about attracting intrastate tourism, it would have made this small yet important piece of advertising available. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister guarantee that the South Australian Shorts booklet will be completed and available for distribution for the 2012 AFTA expo (which I think is on about 3 February)?

2. Have the problems which caused this year's failure been remedied?

3. Why has the government neglected the intrastate tourism market for so long?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:19): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Indeed, tourism is a very important economic driver for this state and it is a portfolio area that I was very pleased to be given responsibility for.

In terms of the main strategies that this government has in developing its tourism capacity, we focus on a number of strategic activities, and one of those is developing South Australia as a destination. We do that by working with major stakeholders to attract things like new airlines and suchlike, with Auckland and Malaysia Airlines providing additional direct services from places like Kuala Lumpur; by improving regional access by air, road and rail; and by working with local government and regional airports.

I have brought a number of projects here, as regional development minister, where I have been responsible for either directly or indirectly helping to develop and provide funds for the Port Lincoln Airport development and other airstrips and airports around the state—at Coober Pedy, as well, I think we had a role to play—but also increasing the range of quality tourism experiences by encouraging private investment into South Australia, with things like outback ballooning in the Flinders Ranges and suchlike.

Another of our strategic approaches is to re-establish South Australia as a premier festival state. We intend to go about it by leveraging and growing existing events, attracting and developing new events and also attracting high-yield visitors to South Australia. Of course, South Australia already has a very strong reputation as a festival state and we will continue to build and grow on that.

Another strategy is to create demand for South Australia as a tourism destination with a focus on intrastate and interstate markets. One of our strategies and one of my priorities is to reinvigorate the Shorts publication. I am not too sure what decision was behind the publication in the past 12 months but certainly I have already had a look at this and have recognised that there needs to be a reinvigoration of this. Whether we still call it Shorts or not I am not sure; it might be time to rebadge it and profile it in a slightly different way. Nevertheless, the intrastate market is obviously an area that offers a lot of potential for us and it is an area that I have prioritised as Minister for Tourism. I think that there are a lot of opportunities there.

Also, in terms of the intrastate strategy, we will continue our Best Backyard marketing campaign which was launched in October; launching a new domestic marketing campaign in January next year; and also continuing to make improvements to South Australia's consumer website (www.southaustralia.com) which was launched by the former minister, John Rau.

The final strategy is about marketing South Australia as a 'must see' destination in selected international markets. There are a number of strategies that we have around that as well. Certainly, my expectation is, as I said, to reinvigorate or rejuvenate the equivalent of the Shorts as part of our intrastate marketing campaign to improve our tourism outcomes.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Stephens has a supplementary question.

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