South Australia is all set to capitalize on a proposed “travel bubble” with New Zealand

 Tuesday, May 12, 2020 

South Australia is on the edge to make the most of a proposed “travel bubble” with New Zealand, the tourism industry insists, as the state introduced a fresh campaign today targeted at enthusing locals to visit the exotic regions of SA.

With suggestions against intrastate travel being raised today among a tranche of constraints for COVID-19 being simplified, the SA Tourism Commission has disclosed about a campaign planned “to celebrate a sense of normality returning to the lives of South Australians who can now explore their own backyard”.

This morning, the Chief Executive of the South Australian Tourism Commission, Mr. Rodney Harrex has informed a parliamentary committee that the agency had been “working really closely with SA Health to get that right messaging” as it is keen to revive a sudden stuck visitor economy of worth $8.1 billion annually.

Harrex explained that SATC’s main goal would be on “intrastate travel”, saying that 53 per cent of the tourism dollar is accomplished by South Australians exploring their own backyard.

“South Australians are very big supporters of travel within our state, so we see that as a significant opportunity because we’ve got a solid base there,” he said. “We’ve been listening to what the indicators are in terms of what areas were likely to open up in the first instance, so we’ve been modelling that around intrastate, and we feel quite strongly about that opportunity because we’re coming off a solid base.”

However, he has further disclosed that the Commission had also been working hard to make the most of travel “bubble” mooted between Australia and New Zealand governments when Jacinda Ardern joined last week’s national cabinet hookup.

Both the countries have comparatively low coronavirus cases, leading to a longer-term prospect of the pact between the two.

Harrex has also stated that in a normal year roughly 55,000 Kiwis visited SA, with a “particular interest in the Murray Riverland region”. “We’ve already had discussions with Air New Zealand [and] if there’s a decision around this we’re ready to make the most of this opportunity,” he told parliament.

Also, he said that SATC had a dedicated operative working in NZ to explore expanding the state’s messaging, so that “if that decision is made we’ll leverage that opportunity”.

SATC also wants to convince local tourists who usually spend their travel dollar overseas to holiday locally this year.

“South Australians spend a lot of money going overseas, so we see this as a real opportunity to engage with those consumers as well,” he said.

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