As South Australia's events calendar heats up, the state is marking another record month for tourism.
Visitor spend in July 2023 reached $865 million, making it the best July on record and the twelfth consecutive month - a full year - of record-high visitor expenditure in South Australia.
The National Visitor Survey data released today comes as the state's events calendar heats up for summer.
This weekend will see the XIX Australian Masters Games 2023 - one of the nation's largest multi-sport events - and WellFest Adelaide kick off, followed by:
- Adelaide Film Festival: 18 - 29 October 2023
- OzAsia Festival: 19 October - 5 November 2023
- TPS South Australia Webex Players Series: 19 - 22 October 2023
- Adelaide Fashion Week: 20 - 22 October 2023
- Bay to Birdwood: 22 October 2023
- World Solar Challenge: 22 - 29 October 2023
- Tarnanthi: 20 October 2023 - 21 January 2024
- Harvest Rock II: 28 - 29 October 2023 and
- National Pharmacies Christmas Pageant: 4 November 2023.
July 2023 highlights released today:
- A total $865 million in visitor expenditure in South Australia for the month of July 2023 - making it the best July on record and the twelfth consecutive month of record-high visitor expenditure in the state.
- Interstate overnight visitor spend of $291 million - up 12 per cent on July 2019
- Intrastate overnight visitor spend of $325 million - up 71 per cent on July 2019
- International overnight visitor spend of $116 million, up from the previous month of June 2023 of $88 million.
The twelfth month in a row of record-high visitor spend was led by a surge in intrastate travel, spurred by the July school holidays.
Minister for Tourism, Zoe Bettison said it has been another record month for tourism in South Australia and a full 12 months where visitor expenditure hit monthly all-time highs.
"With the July visitor spend bolstered by school holiday travel, it is very promising news for the school holiday period currently underway," Minister Bettison said.
"While we're hearing of an expected softening in the visitor economy nationally, tourism operators will be buoyed by these results and with the back-to-back calendar of major events ahead.
"We're doing everything we can to continue to drive this strong momentum, just last week we launched a new domestic tourism marketing campaign and revealed our state's visitor economy hit a record-high $9.9 billion.
"There's no doubt the string of major events will also entice visitors to stay and to spend, including the Australian Masters Games which comes to town from tomorrow - its seventh time hosted in South Australia.
"We're going to see more than 7000 participants, and their friends and family, out and about in Adelaide over the next week, exploring our city, laneway bars and restaurants - all of it adding to our state's economy and our growing reputation as the place to be."
