Tourism industry celebrates highs | Santos Tour Down Under race routes | Cruise restart planning & more...

South Australia’s tourism industry continues to celebrate its wins, with major events and school holidays driving visitation, as well as latest data showing recovery is hitting post-pandemic highs.

Our state’s new annual wintertime festival, Illuminate Adelaide, is well underway – some 150 installations, performances and events are lighting up the CBD and attracting visitors in the traditionally quieter period.

It includes favourites from the festival’s inaugural year such as Light Cycles in the Botanic Gardens and City Lights along North Terrace, as well as festival premieres like Wisdom of AI Light at Rundle Road.

It was great to hear that Wisdom of AI Light and Light Cycles had sell-out sessions over the weekend, and that the streets were very busy for the first night of City Lights. On top of this, we’re hearing there were plenty of interstate visitors here discovering our city.  

There was big news this month for the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under, with new race routes for the return of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) WorldTour event including an historic Riverbank prologue and finish atop Mount Lofty.

It was also confirmed that the Santos Tour Down Under men’s race has secured its place at the highest level of international cycling competition for the next three years, being granted registration on the UCI WorldTour calendar through to 2025.

Another major event, Tasting Australia presented by RAA Travel, is driving visitation across the state as part of its Winter Series. Ticket sales have been strong for the program which boasts incredible winter produce and unique offerings, with some events selling-out.  

As we continue to chart the recovery of SA’s visitor economy, latest data released this month showed that visitor spending is almost on par with pre-pandemic levels – reaching 95 per cent of 2019 levels in April 2022. This made it the third strongest month since the pandemic behind only May and December 2021.

It is fantastic to see such strong results for our sector – figures which exceed the SATC’s recovery forecasts. It shows SA is on the right track, we’re capitalising on pent-up travel demand, and it’s terrific to see so many people out and about.

Read on for details and other updates.

Rodney Harrex
Chief Executive

See the Industry Update – 18 July 2022.