Good afternoon,

Fantastic news for our industry today, with border restrictions for our second largest tourism market to be lifted from midnight tomorrow, 23 September. 

Travellers from New South Wales will no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival to South Australia from that time, dependent on no new cases of community transmission today and tomorrow.

Pre COVID, NSW was our state’s second largest tourism market, both in terms of the number of trips made and visitor expenditure. Approximately one in four interstate visitors to South Australia were from NSW, with nearly 800,000 trips made in 2019.

Making today’s announcement, the Premier Steven Marshall said the decision to lift border restrictions to NSW would benefit families and businesses across the two jurisdictions.

“I know there are many people in South Australia, and many in New South Wales, who will be absolutely delighted by the lifting of this restriction. This is a relief that is going to be felt across our state, from an economic perspective, from a job perspective, from a family reunification perspective,” he said.

The SATC is now actively marketing in NSW, and we are planning some key PR activities to drive NSW visitation to our state. As with all announcements on lifting of borders, I know airlines will now be making plans to put on more flights between our two states, and I look forward to helping fill as many inbound flights seats as possible.

I will continue to keep you updated on how we are making the most of our second largest domestic tourism market being open to us, so watch this space!

Following the news on Sunday of our Great State travel voucher, we’ve had a very positive response from South Australians keen to take up the voucher and from operators keen to reap the extra tourism activity it will drive.

We’ve been reaching out to accommodation providers with 10 or more separately bookable rooms (or cabins), to seek interest in signing up to the deal. If you haven’t already heard from us and you have 10 or more separately bookable rooms, I urge you to get in contact with us. Please email [email protected]. Registrations for accommodation providers to participate close at 5pm this Friday, 25 September.

For eligibility criteria and frequently asked questions for operators about the travel voucher program, please see here.

Rodney Harrex
Chief executive

View the full Industry Update - 22 September here.