Mad March results are in | River Revival Vouchers heat up for winter | SA on the road in UK and Europe
Some good news to finish off the week with a strong response to our next round of River Revival Vouchers and a big economic spike as a result of Mad March.
Our signature festival month again drove a significant return for the state’s visitor economy, with the latest National Visitor Survey data released today confirming March was a record setting month.
Visitor spend in South Australia in March 2023 was 134 per cent of the same month in 2019, thanks to major events like the Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival and WOMADelaide driving a surge in domestic spend.
At $906 million in total visitor expenditure in March 2023, it is the third-highest month on record. It follows the $930 million spent in October 2022 and the all-time high of $940 million spent in January 2023.
New National Visitor Survey data for March 2023 released today also shows:
- Intrastate overnight spend was $303 million – up 52 per cent on March 2019
- Interstate spend was $324 million – up 32 per cent on March 2019
- Domestic day trip spend was $209 million – up 57 per cent on March 2019.
- The new figures come after March 2023 recorded the strongest month ever for Adelaide accommodation occupancy, with an average of 8,376 room nights booked each night of the month.
While that is a great result for the CBD, we’re also focusing strongly on our river regions, with round two of the River Revival Vouchers not far away.
Thank you to the many operators who have signed on for round two – and a big welcome to houseboat companies, who are joining for the first time. It is terrific that we have 140 expressions of interests from businesses, offering more than 300 products right along the river.
The team is in both regions this week and next week, shooting extra content, and I look forward to seeing the results. Thank you also to those operators who have made time to be in some of the content shoots already undertaken for the TV commercial – which goes to air this Sunday, along with a South Aussie with Cosi episode, airing on Channel 7 on Sunday 18 June.
I am travelling this week as part of our UK and European Roadshow, along with 29 South Australian operators. It has been an extremely valuable week so far meeting with key retail agents and product managers in the UK. We also hosted a media event in London yesterday and head to Munich followed by Milan and Paris for more meetings to continue selling South Australia.
There has been significant interest and enthusiasm about travel to South Australia from the agents and product managers that have attended the various events and extremely positive feedback from the operators that are participating.
This Roadshow follows on from our North American trip in March, and is an important step towards our state reclaiming our international market, which was worth $1.2 billion before the pandemic.
We are also preparing for a big week next week, with the State Budget being handed down on Thursday. Enjoy your long weekend,
Emma Terry
Chief Executive Officer