Tourism News May 2020
Welcome to the May edition of Tourism News.
With South Australia’s Roadmap to Recovery announced in early May, the past month has been focused on the post COVID-19 rebound of our state’s tourism sector.
Yesterday, the South Australian Tourism Commission launched our Welcome Back recovery campaign. Similar to the successful #BookThemOut campaign run to help communities on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills recover after this summer’s bushfires, the new “Welcome Back” message aims to get South Australians out and about, supporting South Australia.
You may have seen the campaign throughout the weekend's Sunday Mail, which included full-page creative as well as a double-page spread featuring iconic global holiday destinations that South Australians can “swap to SA” such as Kilsby for Croatia, Barossa for Napa Valley, McLaren Vale for Montepulciano, and Murray for Mississippi.
From today, for 12 days, a different region will feature in the campaign, which runs across print, radio, outdoor and TV and drives traffic to southaustralia.com/welcomeback. You can watch the 30-second TVC here . We’ve also got PR, social and digital activity to leverage the message. Starting today in the Adelaide Hills, SA-icon Hans kicked off the ‘Roadtrip with Hans’ in a co-branded South Australia/Hans pink hummer. Each day Hans and Channel 10’s Studio 10 will be spruiking the Welcome Back message throughout SA’s regions, finishing up on Friday in the Flinders Ranges and Outback.
Today, South Australia commenced Step 2 in our state’s Roadmap to Recovery. In line with this, we’re releasing our COVID-19 Awareness Training – a free 30-minute online course designed to give employees and business owners in the tourism and hospitality sector the basics needed to understand prevention and control the spread of COVID-19, as well as give customers a COVID-clean confidence.
Developed by the SATC in partnership with Health Safety Environment Australia (HSEA), the COVID-19 Awareness Training is a simple awareness course designed to help individuals understand the basics to assist them in adapting to a “COVID-safe” way of operating. I encourage you to take 30 minutes to complete the course and help bring yourselves and your staff up to speed on the fundamentals of infection prevention and control for COVID-19. Expect an email tomorrow with details on how to access the course.
In welcome news for the transport and tour operators today, we now have confirmation on the guidelines relating to transport and tour vehicles (excluding public transport). We have been working closely with SA Health on the development of these guidelines, and I know many operators have been waiting for this advice to be made public – particularly with the long weekend coming up. You can read the Principles for Transport and Tour Vehicles here. I hope it offers the clarity many of you have been seeking.
This month, we’ve continued engaging strongly with regional tourism representatives – from local small business owners to mayors and regional tourism organisations. Last week I shared with you that myself and the SATC Chair Andrew Bullock visited the Limestone Coast to kickstart these regional visits. This week, we are both headed to Kangaroo Island for two days are getting out to the regions to meet with regional tourism representatives, local operators and community leaders there to hear first-hand about the issues and opportunities facing them.
Read on for an update on what’s been happening over the month of May in our tourism sector.
Rodney Harrex
Chief executive