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SA Tourism Tops the Class

“This news is the best possible Christmas present for our tourism industry. We’re bucking the national trend at a difficult time for tourism in Australia.

“Our efforts to target high spending visitors through the State’s biggest ever interstate marketing campaign is paying dividends for the State.

“We’re spending $7.8 million on tourism marketing Australia-wide this year through a partnership with media and trade that makes our campaign worth $14.2 million.

“We’ve had some excellent results, with research showing that every dollar we’ve spent on marketing has injected $8 into the State’s economy.

“Many tourism operators are reporting they are nearly booked out for the peak Christmas and January tourist season and we are looking forward to a jam-packed events season in the new year.

“Our brilliant summer events period will kick off with John McEnroe at the World Tennis Challenge and Lance Armstrong at the Santos Tour Down Under.

“We also have the SRAM Australian Mountain Bike Championships, the Adelaide Fringe, the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts, Clipsal 500 Adelaide, WOMADelaide and the International Rugby Sevens.”

National Visitor Survey results for the 12 months ended September 2009 include (compared to the previous year):
- 9% rise in tourism expenditure to $4.6 billion, compared to a national decline of 2%
- 4% rise in interstate holiday purpose visitors numbers and 2% growth in interstate nights, more than any other State in Australia
- Domestic day trip expenditure increased, breaking the $1 billion mark for the first time
- 5% increase in domestic overnight visitor expenditure in regional areas, pumping dollars into local communities.

Media contact:
Public Relations Unit,
telephone +61 8 8463 4500
or email satc.pr.publications@saugov.sa.gov.au