Tourism industry poised to surpass $6 billion in value to SA’s economy — but critics say it’s not enough to meet $8 billion target

SOUTH Australia’s tourism industry has surpassed $6 billion in value to the state’s economy, but critics are questioning whether the State Government will reach its target of $8 billion by 2020.

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SOUTH Australia’s tourism industry has surpassed $6 billion in value to the state’s economy, but critics are questioning whether the State Government will reach its target of $8 billion by 2020.

New figures today show domestic visitor numbers have increased in every state and territory.

Overall, Australians took 66.6 million trips interstate in the past year — or more than three per person.

The visitor economy in SA grew to $6.2 billion, according to State Tourism Minister Leon Bignell, the highest on record.

Domestic travel still contributes the most to SA’s visitor economy, with day trips and overnight stays injecting $5.2 billion.

The National Visitor Survey also shows that:

* SA attracted a record high 6.2 million domestic overnight visitors, up 9.8 per cent

* Intrastate travel increased by 11 per cent, accounting for 4 million overnight visits

* Interstate travel increased by 7.6 per cent with 2.3 million domestic visitors

* Adelaide attracted the highest domestic tourists with 2.4 million visits, followed by the

Fleurieu Peninsula with 671,000

The average length of an interstate stay was three to four nights.

Spending by domestic tourists was worth “an all-time high” of $59.8 billion to the national economy over the past year, Federal Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo said.

In SA, the latest Tourism Commission annual report shows the value of the tourism sector grew to $5.9 billion by the middle of this year and was “on track” to reach at least $6.3 billion in 2017.

International visitors put $970m into SA’s visitor economy in the past year, Mr Bignell said, and tourism job have grown by 4000 over the past two years.

The State Government has set a target to reach $8 billion by 2020.

However, in mid-2014, the SA Tourism Plan 2020 warned that, if the state did not grow its market share of visitors to Australia, then the value of the sector would only grow to $6.7 billion by 2020.

Opposition tourism spokesman David Ridgway said SA would “struggle” to hit its target “unless we start getting a much bigger share of international visitors”.

“We’ve got more people coming here but our numbers are not growing as fast as other states,” he said.

However, Mr Bignell said the state was well on track to reach the $8 billion target.

“There has never been a better year for tourism in the state’s history,” he said.

“The State Government’s massive $70 million additional investment in tourism is delivering major economic results and it’s so pleasing to see more South Australian’s are exploring their own backyard and supporting the local tourism industry.”

The Government forecasts that growing visitor spending to $8 billion would create 10,000 jobs.

The 2015-16 Tourism Commission report says 4000 jobs have been created over the previous two financial years.