South Australia’s visitor economy worth $5.95 billion

South Australia’s visitor economy has reached an all-time high of $5.95 billion with the State continuing to attract a record number of interstate and international visitors.

The latest International and National Visitor Survey results show that during the 12 months to June 2016 visitors to South Australia were spending more and staying longer.

As a result, the visitor economy has grown 11.4% from $5.34 billion to $5.95 billion and is on track to reach the South Australian Government’s 2020 target of $8 billion.

Interstate and intrastate tourists continue to be the highest contributor to the local visitor economy, with day trips and overnight stays injecting $5 billion.

South Australia attracted a record 422,000 international visitors who spent $944 million, compared to 385,000 visitors the year before who spent $774 million. This is a 9.5% and 22% increase respectively.

International visitor nights increased by 7% to 9.6 million for the year – outperforming the national average of 5.2%.

China continues to be a high performer in international expenditure - up 18% and contributing more than $200 million to the visitor economy, with 36,000 Chinese visitors coming to South Australia during the 12 month period.

Commenting on the spending, South Australian Minister for Tourism Leon Bignell stated “it’s been a fantastic year for tourism in South Australia. In the past 12 months, an additional $608 million has been injected into our visitor economy and we are on track to reach our goal of an $8 billion visitor economy by 2020.

“This hasn’t happened by chance. The (South Australian) Government knows tourism is an economic driver and we have pumped an additional $70 million into the tourism portfolio to market South Australia nationally and internationally and attract major events.”

Images: Hot air ballooning over the Barossa Valley (top, courtesy of Balloon Adventures) and the Adelaide Oval (below).

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