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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-15 Daily Xml
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Tour Down Under

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:15): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Would the minister provide the chamber with more information about the announcement earlier today about the record number of visitation nights associated with the Santos Tour Down Under earlier this year?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:15): I thank the honourable member for his very important question. The 20th Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) was held from 13 to 21 January 2018. Today, I was pleased to be joined by Mike Turtur and the SATC to announce that the 2018 event generated a record $63.7 million in economic benefit for South Australia.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: Under the previous Labor government.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: This year's event marked 20 years since the inauguration of the event in 1999 under a Liberal government, Mr Hanson—maybe when you were still in short pants, I know, but it was 20 years ago.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I do beg your pardon, I am sure Mr Hanson was still in short pants when this event was started some 20 years ago. I don't think any of us could have predicted the heights the TDU would reach some two decades on. It is certainly an exceptional example of how powerful these events are for the state's economy and community spirit. Some of the key results announced today include the economic impact of $63.7 million, up 12.7 per cent from last year; 46,000 event visitors, up 7 per cent from 43,000 last year (2017); 810,000 spectators, and we acknowledge they were down 3.6 per cent from the 840,000 in 2017, but we had a couple of extreme weather days. All events that are held in January will occasionally be confronted with extreme hot weather.

I think there were 774 full-time job equivalents created, up 13 per cent on the previous year, and an average of 8.7 visitor bed nights, up 5 per cent from the previous year. With the exception of total spectators, all above indicators demonstrate strong growth and were records for the event. There were certainly some extreme conditions to contend with this year and it was the second hottest temperature in the race's 20-year history. Still though, fans came out to line the race routes and cheer the world's best riders, with over 46,000 visitors travelling from interstate and overseas just to attend the event.

The event generated more than 27,500 items of media coverage, with a potential reach of some 558 million people. International print media coverage appeared in 46 countries around the world and across 566 different publications and 882 hours of broadcast TV were screened across 190 territories, with a potential audience of 1.087 billion people. This year, the festival of cycling kicked off with a city tour of Adelaide village, with a teams presentation and a free concert by the South Australian ARIA award winning artist, Guy Sebastian.

Local communities relished the atmosphere, with successful street parties held in Prospect, Unley, Norwood and Glenelg across the nine days of the festival, with various associated events in the regions. South African Daryl Impey won the event for the first time, ahead of the 2017 winner from Tasmania, Richie Porte, and the 2013 winner, Tom-Jelte Slagter from the Netherlands.

Three-time reigning world champion, Peter Sagan, returned to the TDU for the second consecutive year, participating in his only race in Australia for the season with his team. His presence was a key contributor to the strong visitation for the event and his social media reached more than one million followers on Facebook alone and helped showcase Adelaide and South Australia strongly again.

The 2018 Santos Women's Tour Down Under saw an increase in status to UCI 2.1 level, bringing it one step closer to the UCI Women's World Tour level. This resulted in greater UCI points and prize money being offered for the women's teams to help attract an even stronger field of international teams from Australia, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United States. Ten of these were UCI women's teams, compared with eight in 2017, and five of them ranked in the world's top 10 teams, compared to four in 2017. Amanda Spratt from New South Wales won the WTDU for the second consecutive year.

Exciting new initiatives this year included the TDU After Dark program, which was promoted as evening content in the City of Adelaide Tour Village and CBD on seven different nights of the event week. Those included Roller Frenzy X, an established 500-metre roller—bike trainer—challenge in collaboration with the Port Adelaide Cycling Club. There was also the VirtuGO legends race, a virtual cycling challenge showcasing Willunga Hill.

From a mass participation perspective, 702 riders took part in the Bupa Family Ride, prior to the People's Choice Classic, 108 more than 2017, representing an 18 per cent increase, while 371 children rode in the Bupa mini tour for kids stage in conjunction with stage 1, 85 less than 2017. Unfortunately, the Bupa Challenge Tour was cancelled as a result of the extreme heat experienced during the event week, a decision supported by all state emergency services bodies, with the heat eventually reaching 43.7 on that day.

With the completion of 20 editions of the TDU, some 1,106 unique riders have competed in the race, with approximately 16,024 kilometres covered across South Australia, while 10.5 million spectators have enjoyed the event over the last 20 years.

The 2019 Santos Tour Down Under will take place from 10 to 20 January 2019. Race routes for the men's and women's races will be announced somewhere between July and August. Our sights are firmly set on the next race, and we are committed to making the event bigger and better yet again. We are expecting bigger crowds and more competitors, with the women's peloton continuing in equal prize money at the 2019 Women's Tour Down Under.

Finally, a big thank you to all of those who made this year's event such a success, particularly those who came out to watch the race, and to all of the hardworking volunteers and staff at the South Australian Tourism Commission who make this event a world-class event that we are very proud of in South Australia.

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