It’s no Tuscany but it’s accessible: tourists influx swamps South Australia

Having long been regarded as a second-tier destination for domestic travellers, South Australia is now overrun with surging visitor numbers from NSW.

Mt Lofty House Sommelier Henry Bampton gives Jamie and Judy Chaffey from Gunnedah NSW a private wine tasting. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Having long been regarded as a second-tier destination for domestic travellers, South Australia is now overrun with surging visitor numbers from NSW as the state’s open border policy drives unprecedented demand for holidays in SA.

The state’s tourism operators are enjoying a double influx of visitors, with SA being the first state to lift its ban on intrastate travel and the first to open its borders to every other state except Victoria.

The demand for intrastate travel has surged thanks to the SA government’s $4m “Great State” tourism stimulus measure, where 50,000 vouchers offering up to $100 off local hotel accommodation were snapped up online within 55 minutes of their launch last Thursday.

These local hotel numbers are being further boosted by the influx of NSW visitors, with every airline upping its flights into Adelaide, and many hotels which earlier this year dealt with the double whammy of bushfires and the pandemic now hiring extra staff to deal with spiralling demand.

Qantas has gone from zero flights between Sydney and Adelaide each week to 13 flights and Jetstar from five a week to 13 a week, with the number of NSW visitors to the official SA tourism website topping 100,000 last week, an increase of 199 per cent on the previous fortnight.

Mount Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills is a high-end boutique hotel, restaurant and wedding venue that charges between $449 and $1400 a night and has breathtaking views over the Ranges.

General manager Jesse Kornoff said October was now shaping as its busiest month on record, with travellers from Sydney and NSW driving much of the growth.

“If you had told me how this year was going to play out back in April, I wouldn’t have picked it in a million years,” Mr Kornoff said.

“We went from having 130 staff down to just five, but now we are up to 140 to keep with demand because people are so desperate to travel.

“When the borders were opened to NSW a couple of weeks ago, we were just inundated.

“Talking to the guests the story is the same — ‘We were meant to be in Tuscany, we were going to be in Aspen, we just wanted to get out and go somewhere’.

“Earlier in the year, business disappeared overnight like quicksand. Now our challenge is finding enough staff to keep up with demand.”

Grain and cattle farmers Jamie and Judy Chaffey, who hail from Gunnedah in country NSW, arrived in SA last Monday for a week-long stay.

“I’ve been to SA a number of times and love the place but Judy has never been and we have been having a ball,” Mr Chaffey told The Australian.