Message from the Tourism Minister

From Andrew's Desk

Tiger Leaps into Adelaide

Tiger Airways has announced it will establish a second Australian base at Adelaide Airport - a move that could bring more than 10 million extra passengers through the terminal.

The Adelaide base will form part of Tiger's expansion of domestic Australian routes and is a significant benefit for the State's tourism industry.

"Tiger's use of Adelaide as a base potentially means 10 million extra passengers coming into and out of Adelaide Airport during the next eight years," South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) Chief Executive, Andrew McEvoy said.

"Low-cost carriers such as Tiger make South Australia cost competitive with other capital city destinations as a holiday destination."

The SATC has worked with Adelaide Airport and the Department of Trade and Economic Development to secure Adelaide as Tiger Airways' second Australian base.

Mr McEvoy said the demand for flights into Adelaide was strong and every time new capacity was introduced the take up was immediate.

"It demonstrates that Adelaide and South Australia is under-serviced and that there is more opportunity to grow," he said.

"That is why we have been working so closely with airlines to improve air access to the State. In the past five years, the number of weekly international flights has doubled from 13 to 26."

Whale Centre Upgrade

The newly-upgraded South Australian Whale Centre at Victor Harbor reopened its doors in time for this year's whale-watching season, adding to the state's appeal for nature-based visitors.

The newly redeveloped Whale Centre, closed March last year, has relaunched as a marine environment centre with a focus on tourism, education and research.

Victor Harbor is a key destination for whale-watchers and tourists, with Southern Right Whales often seen around the coastal waters. The new Whale Centre presents the historical and current relationship the area has with this amazing species.

Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said the centre played an important part in attracting people who enjoy nature-based activities and animal watching.

"The South Australian Whale Centre is the State's only dedicated whale and marine-focussed interpretive centre," she said.

"There is an estimated world population of 4000 Southern Right Whales and Australia has a visiting population of 600 to 800."

The new Whale Centre features various interactive activities and exhibitions of other creatures of the sea, including sharks, dolphins, and local endangered species.

The redevelopment project was funded or supported in-kind by The Department for Environment and Zoos South Australia, the Whale and Dolphin Conversation society, the Rodney Fox Shark Experience Trust and Steve Burnell of Deakin University.

South Australia's Dining Excellence Aknowledged

North Adelaide's The Manse has been crowned Restaurant of the Year at the Natural Gas and Restaurant & Catering SA Awards for Excellence 2008, while three other South Australian restaurants were inducted into the Awards' Hall of Fame.

The Individual Hall of Fame award was won by the four owners of Cibo Espresso, Roberto Cardone, Salvatore Pepe, Angelo Inglese and Claudio Ferraro for their continued dedication to hospitality.

The Restaurant & Catering Australia, Fine Wine Partners and Henschke Lifetime Achiever Prize was awarded to Brian Lawes the head of Cookery at Tafe SA Regency Campus for his contribution to the association and to the industry in general over more than 20 years.

Read the Natural Gas and Restaurant & Catering SA Awards for Excellence complete list of winners

Changes at the SATC

As part of its ambitious goal to increase visitor expenditure to $6.3 billion by 2014, the SATC has undergone an internal restructure to ensure the best skills are aligned with major projects and initiatives.

The renamed Destination Development Group is one of the teams to undergo change and its Executive General Manager, Joanne Podoliak, said the restructure would see the functions of several different units come together to better align resources. 

"The SATC is completely focused on our long-term goals and to achieve them, we need to change the way we do things," she said.  
"Changing consumer patterns and growing competition from interstate and abroad demand a more succinct, strategic focus, with a greater emphasis on undertaking activities that can deliver the best returns," she said.

"Bringing together our Policy, Planning, Research, Development and Regional Units as the Destination Development Group will ensure we have a range of people with different experience working on one goal." 

Ms Podoliak said recent modelling showed the SATC had a $1.1 billion gap in reaching the 2014 goal.

"$300 million of this gap will be closed by communicating better with our key Experience Seeker consumers, and $800 million of the gap needs to come from getting increased access to and within the state, developing new signature infrastructure and leveraging our events," she said.

To reflect this new focus and momentum the SATC will now focus its development resources in four main areas: access; new opportunities; strategy and policy, and regional partnerships.  
Ms Podoliak said that through the area of "Access" the SATC would predominantly focus on encouraging more planes to land in South Australia, since our State was still underserviced in this area.

"The team will also pick up responsibility for the vision to make South Australia a significant southern waters cruise ship destination as well as ensuring other modes of access are enhanced, such as road, rail and bus.

"In the area of 'new opportunities' we will encourage signature infrastructure which builds on our strengths and makes consumers consider South Australia as a holiday destination," she said.  
"We will focus on assisting new tourism infrastructure that helps us stand out from the rest of the competition.

"The area of strategy and policy is all about keeping us focused on the long term and aware of what is happening in the future.

"Our focus on this area also underpins our endeavours by ensuring we have a positive policy environment to support tourism development.

"Building "regional partnerships" has begun with our current Regional Marketing teams given the broader job role of Tourism instead of just Marketing. This better reflects the roles that they currently carry out in the regions.

"It is still vital that these teams are supported by great regional tourism committees so that we have strategic local input and engagement." 

Ms Podoliak said the Destination Development team would  be focusing on specific projects that would make a difference and positively influence the tourism target.