10 Jan 2022

Events kick off 2022, business grant guidelines, support for industry & more...

With back-to-back international tennis tournaments at Memorial Drive and the program released for the Santos Festival of Cycling over the weekend, there is some good news to start 2022.

I’ve been talking with operators and industry representatives across the state over recent weeks and particularly as we work to determine how the SATC can best support our visitor economy through this challenging time.

It’s clear that in addition to the impact of restrictions which help protect public health, consumer confidence to travel has taken a hit. A large part of our focus is on how we can stimulate tourism on the other side of the Omicron outbreak. 

We’re pushing ahead with most of our scheduled marketing activity, while also running additional marketing activities to promote last minute deals, offers and things to do in South Australia. We’re back into organising famils for journalists – an effective way to help spread the word about SA and all of the amazing options we have within our state. We’re also exploring new ideas and promotional options to support our industry through this difficult period and to encourage forward bookings. I look forward to keeping you updated.

It is good to see the guidelines and application details for the Tourism, Hospitality and Gym Grant – as part of the $40 million Business Support Package announced by the State Government last year – are now live. These are targeted at businesses impacted by restrictions put in place on 27 December.

There are two grants available under the Tourism, Hospitality and Gym Grant:

  • Automatic payment to employing businesses that received the previous COVID-19 Tourism and Hospitality Support Grants – no application necessary
  • Turnover based payment – businesses need to declare at least a 30 per cent reduction in turnover due to restricted trading conditions over the two weeks from 27 December 2021 (the commencement date of the trading restriction) to 9 January 2022.

Please refer to details and other eligibility criteria at treasury.sa.gov.au.

The application process for the Major Events Support grant is expected to be released soon.

Premier Steven Marshall announced today that effective from Thursday, close contacts in South Australia will no longer be required to complete a PCR test – they will utilise free Rapid Antigen Tests for days one and six.

As we continue to plan ahead to stimulate tourism as soon as we can, we encourage South Australians with plans to travel to retain their bookings if they can. We’re also reminding travellers of the importance of COVID-safe measures while travelling – adhering to social distancing, wearing a face mask, using hand sanitiser, QR code check-ins, and opting for outdoors where you can. 

We continue to work with and be available for our state’s tourism industry through this time. Please feel free to reach out to me or one of my team via [email protected].

Rodney Harrex
Chief Executive

View the Industry Update – 10 January 2022.