Spring events to generate $50 million for the South Australian economy

A huge range of drawcards including OzAsia, the Adelaide Fashion Festival, the AC/DC concert and national and international sporting events are expected to inject more than $50 million into South Australia’s visitor economy this spring.

South Australian Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said more than 800,000 people – including visitors from interstate and overseas – will attend the events in October and November.

The wide range of Adelaide-based events could result in as many as 20,000 additional hotel bed nights and $3.2 million more in accommodation revenue, as well as have a flow on effect for the taxi industry, restaurants and retail outlets.

Looking forward to the events, Minister Bignell stated “South Australia must take advantage of our strengths and one of our key economic priorities is to be a growing destination choice for international and domestic travellers.

“In this year’s State Budget we invested an unprecedented $35 million over two years to promote South Australia to domestic and key international markets, to secure new major events and conferences and create thousands of tourism-related jobs.

“While Mad March has long been renowned as the busiest time in Adelaide’s events calendar,this October and November is going to be just as action-packed.

“Having a lot of events on at the same time of year is a good thing. It creates a sense of excitement and builds on our reputation of being a vibrant, dynamic city.

“Adelaide is used to setting the standard on great events. People all around Australia and the world travel here specifically to see the Santos Tour Down Under, cricket and AFL at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Fringe, Clipsal 500 Adelaide, Adelaide Festival and WOMADelaide.

“As well as these additional spring events, there is a range of other things to see and do throughout the state including the Gorgeous Festival in McLaren Vale, Ceduna's Oysterfest, the Kangaroo Island Art Feast and the Semaphore Music Festival to name just a few.

“New figures show South Australia is attracting more domestic visitors and they are spending more time and money when they are here.

“The visitor economy remains one of our most critical industries with 32,000 people directly employed by the sector with the potential for that to grow to 41,000 by 2020.

“Direct tourism jobs have already grown by 1,000 since we released our key economic priorities.”

Events to be held over the next eight weeks in Adelaide include: OzAsia Festival, Australian Masters Games, Asiafest, Adelaide Festival of Architecture and Design, Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, ITU Duathlon World Championships, Adelaide Film Festival, Adelaide Motorsport Festival - incorporating Classic Adelaide Rally, Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, Adelaide Fashion Festival, CheeseFest, Credit Union Christmas Pageant, Feast Festival, Australian International Three-Day Event – incorporating the Equestrian Grand Final, Pacific School Games, AC/DC and KISS concerts, Adelaide United vs Melbourne Victory A-league and the NAB AFL Draft.

Images: WOMADelaide (top) and Adelaide viewed from Adelaide Shores (below).

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