New plan warns of $1.3 billion South Australian tourism revenue shortfall

A NEW blueprint to expand the state’s tourism sector warns it could fall $1.3 billion short of a target to increase the amount visitors spend by the end of the decade.

A NEW blueprint to expand the state’s tourism sector warns it could fall $1.3 billion short of a target to increase the amount visitors spend by the end of the decade.

The tourism sector has been identified by the Government as a driver of economic activity but the predicted shortfall would mean fewer jobs and visitors and less revenue.

The Government wants the tourism industry to be worth $8 billion by 2020.

However, the South Australia Tourism Plan 2020 states if current market share is maintained visitor expenditure will only grow to $6.7 billion by 2020.

The industry is currently valued at about $5.1 billion.

The plan, released late last week, warns holding market share “is not a given and requires ongoing efforts”.

To drive growth, the industry must attract more high-spending tourists from overseas and interstate and encourage more South Australians to explore their own backyard.

Opposition tourism spokesman David Ridgway said the value of the industry had only grown by $600 million since 2009.

Mr Ridgway said it would be difficult to meet faster growth expectations because the Government had allocated tourism “the smallest budget we’ve seen in at least a decade”.

“The Government’s not investing but the industry is expected to grow faster with significantly less resources,” he said.

Tourism directly employs 31,000 South Australians, or about three times the number of people

employed in the mining industry.

Growing visitor spending to $8 billion would create 10,000 jobs, the Government says.

The Tourism Plan predicts a 42 per cent rise by 2020 in the amount of money spent by foreign visitors and 33 per cent more to be spent by interstate tourists.

In a statement accompanying the release of the plan, Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said it “reaffirms the State Government’s ambition to build an $8 billion tourism industry by 2020”.

Mr Bignell said resources would be focused in future on increasing the number of visitors from traditional markets such as the UK, US and New Zealand and emerging markets like China and India.

“We are committed to working with the private sector to build a sustainable and profitable tourism industry,” he said.