Tourism in the spotlight

SATC visit shines a light on the Limestone Coast

Tourism operators and stakeholders in the Limestone Coast had a rare opportunity at the end of May as they met face to face with executives from the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) including new CEO Emma Terry, who was on her first official visit to the region. More than 100 tourism industry powerbrokers attended events in Robe and Mount Gambier.

City of Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin OAM, who is also Limestone Coast Local Government Association chair, said it was good for the new CEO (pictured right – photo courtesy of Go Fish Social) to see firsthand the amazing attractions and experienced this region has to offer.

“It is important to forge a relationship with the SATC so together we can increase visitation to our region,” Mayor Martin said. And Mayor Martin couldn’t wait to showcase the region’s newest asset – Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.

“It was a great opportunity to show her Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre and highlighting the opportunity that facility provides to attract conferences, exhibitions and sporting events not only in Mount Gambier but to our State.”

The Tourism SA visit also doubled as a chance for local tourism stakeholders to meet with the new Limestone Coast Local Government Association Destination development representatives – Destination Development manager Kate Napper and her colleague Emma Herring.

“We have inherited a detailed Limestone Coast Destination Management Plan to 2025 that was endorsed by the Limestone Coast councils in 2020 and supported by a doubling of their investment in tourism for the past three years,” Ms Napper said. “This plan aligns with SATC’s regional visitor strategy with focus areas across marketing and events, experience development and industry capability building.

“Fostering industry connectivity is also an important role that we play and events like these tourism networking sessions are a great way to ignite potential for stronger collaboration and information sharing.

“We have the opportunity to be a stronger force for tourism when we all work together.”

The Tourism SA visit also had a cross border flavour, including recently appointed SA Cross Border Commissioner Liz McKinnon (pictured inset with Glenelg Shire Council’s Karen Stephens), as representatives from South West Victoria also had a chance to network with Limestone Coast tourism operators and the SATC executive team.

“It’s great to see the SATC connecting with our key cross border tourism leaders in the region to understand first-hand the unique opportunities in the Green Triangle region,” Ms McKinnon said.

“There are many passionate and hardworking operators who have shown an appetite to collaborate, better promoting our tourism routes to strengthen our visitor economy by building united tourism routes that promote our majestic nature based attractions, world class food and wine offerings and world heritage listed attractions.”

The Cross Border Commissioner role is focused on identifying issues, brokering solutions and providing advice to government on matters that impact our cross border communities and sharing tourism opportunities certainly falls into that category.

“These communities are illustrating there is opportunity to strengthen touring route promotion cross border, such as the Limestone Coast better linking to the Great Ocean Road and Grampians regions. The Adelaide to Melbourne Touring Map has historically been a great tool in connecting visitors to our cross border communities,” Ms McKinnon said.

“My work has shown there is a growing willingness from tourism operators to continue to partner with cross border counterparts to grow this visitor experience, because as we know – tourists don’t distinguish state borders. “I’m also keen to explore the interaction of public transport system and its role in our cross border visitor economies.”

And the Cross Border Commissioner certainly thinks now is the time to start rolling up our sleeves and tapping into the region’s visitation potential and the economic spin-offs that visitation provides for the wider community. “The Green Triangle has a growing opportunity to benefit from the cruise ship market which is recovering from the pandemic slow down,” she said. “Portland has historically attracted an average of six cruise ships annually, providing a unique cross border marketing opportunity to promote our world class attractions to a global audience.

“This part of the world has an exclusive proposition given it has two world-heritage listed attractions, the Naracoorte Caves and Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, near Heywood, providing a gateway to promote the region’s rich and unique cultural heritage values.

“I intend to explore how our state’s key tourism bodies can strengthen existing partnerships to meet this growing regional push to cross pollinate.”

SA Tourism came to the Limestone Coast visit armed with the latest statistics, with Tourism Research Australia data released as part of the latest Regional Visitor Strategy progress snapshot January to December last year, to help put some context around the discussion.

This update shows the Limestone Coast has achieved 92% of its 2025 visitor expenditure target with $441million in expenditure recorded for that period. Total number of day trip visitors has increased by 31% to 827,000 while number of overnight visits has also increased to 622,000.

Limestone Coast accommodation occupancy continues to outperform preCOVID levels with 1.9million visitor nights generated during 2022, up from 1.8million in 2021. A record 84% occupancy set in January 2023 with 31,000 room nights occupied at a total revenue of $5.9m.

Tourism employment has jumped up with 3900 people directly and indirectly employed in tourism sector during the 2022 calendar year.