More South Australians choosing to holiday in their state

MORE South Australians are choosing to holiday at home but the state still attracts the lowest proportion of domestic tourists among mainland states.

More of us holidaying locally

MORE South Australians are choosing to holiday at home but the state still attracts the lowest proportion of domestic tourists among the mainland states.

The latest National Visitor Survey shows more locals took holidays within the state's borders last financial year - up 127,000 on 2011-12 - but they stayed 302,000 fewer nights.

SA also hosted 119,000 more overnight visitors from other states over the same period.

The number of nights stayed rose by 136,000.

More of us holidaying locally

Despite the gains, SA only attracted seven per cent of travellers from around the country in the past year, well behind New South Wales (33 per cent), Victoria (24 per cent) and Queensland (24 per cent).

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Western Australia attracted marginally more than SA (10 per cent) while Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory attracted three per cent or less.

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Opposition tourism spokesman David Ridgway said SA's smaller population was no excuse because the state had some of the best attractions in the country.

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"South Australia has it all, magnificent beaches and coastlines, rugged outback ranges, sophisticated night-life, vineyards and the Mighty Murray, but visitors are staying away," he said.

"Why should NSW get almost a third of all Australia's interstate tourists and SA just seven per cent?"

Mr Ridgway said more promotional funds should be directed to the regions.

Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said more than 60 per cent of visitors to SA were venturing out of Adelaide and exploring the regions.

"Almost 50 per cent of our domestic tourism expenditure is being generated within our regions, which is great news for our regional tourism operators," he said.

Mr Bignell said the SA Tourism Commission's Best Backyard campaign, which highlights the regions, was "paying dividends".

Victorians made up the largest proportion of domestic visitors to SA, followed by those from NSW and Queensland.

SA was least attractive to Tasmanians.

Visitors who only spent the day in Adelaide spent about $125 each - the third-highest expenditure - while overnight visitors spent $237 a day.