Consultation begins - 2025 South Australian Regional Visitor Strategy

Dear industry colleague,

I’m pleased to be kicking off the consultation for the 2025 South Australian Regional Visitor Strategy (RVS) today.

I join the RVS steering committee, chaired by Helen Edwards, and with representatives from Regional Development Australia SA, local government, TiCSA, our state’s regional tourism organisations, and the South Australian Tourism Commission. Today, we commence the first two of 15 workshops held in region, starting with the Murray River, Lakes & Coorong and the Riverland.

Consultation for the 2025 RVS follows the success of the 2020 Strategy – a success that is possible because it is a strategy developed by the regions, for the regions.

Regional tourism in South Australia is an economic powerhouse. Over 5,000 tourism operators work with regional tourism organisations, local government and key industry players to generate 43 per cent of South Australia’s visitor economy.

As we continue to face the challenges of COVID-19, we’ve already seen how vitally important intrastate tourism is, and how regions are already playing their part in helping to kickstart the economy.

Our Regional Visitor Strategy is about supporting our regions, to not only recover regional tourism but grow it to meet the State Tourism Plan target of $4 billion generated in our regions by 2025.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on our RVS survey – we had over 650 responses, a fantastic cross-section across the industry.

I look forward to getting out across our state’s 11 tourism regions over the coming weeks – with the RVS steering committee – to discuss the priorities for the next five years, and talk directly with you.

Click through below for my short video message to our state's tourism industry. I also encourage you to pick up today's Advertiser – our work with the regions to help recover tourism is highlighted on the front page and on page 7. You can also see my opinion editorial, which discusses the outlook for our industry.

We’ll be out there in the regions, working with you, to plan the path forward together.

Rodney Harrex

Chief executive

On behalf of the South Australian Regional Visitor Strategy steering committee, chaired by Helen Edwards.

See the full Industry Update - 7 September 2020 here.