South Australia is looking to entice more people to experience more within the state, offering vouchers of up to $200.

The Great State Voucher program aims to provide an economic boost to the tourism sector during the quieter, cooler months.

People will need to apply for the free voucher online and can get a $50, $100 or $200 voucher to spend on hosted tours or experiences within South Australia.

These experiences can include shark-cage diving, helicopter and mountain bike tours or even food and wine trails.

About 500 operators are expected to register their interest in the scheme.

Tours and experiences like shark-cage diving are the focus in the third round of the Great State Voucher scheme. Picture: Ralph Alphonso/ Tourism SASource:Supplied

The vouchers will launch after the Easter weekend and April school holiday period.

Those who get their hands on a voucher will be able to use it during the cooler months of the year on any day of the week.

It’s the third round of the Great State Voucher program, which previously created more than 62,000 night bookings at hotels and generated more than $32m for the state’s economy.

Premier Steven Marshall said the scheme’s expansion was “the right support at the right time” as it would focus on tourism businesses when the Easter period was over and JobKeeper ended.

“We’ve listened to industry and business owners across SA, and this latest round of vouchers will see locals spending up on tours and experiences which they ordinarily might have overlooked while holidaying at home,” he said.

Food and wine trials are expected to be included in the scheme. Picture: Supplied / Duy DashSource:Supplied

SA Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said most of the vouchers would go to South Australian residents, but there were some allocated for interstate visitors.

“We know interstate visitors also spend three times that of South Australians, so there will be an opportunity for a small number of interstate visitors to take advantage of these vouchers,” he said.

“We’re looking at how we can promote the different experiences and (they) will be promoted in advance so consumers can clearly see what they would like to do.”

Under the previous hotel-focused scheme, which ran earlier this year, 4000 vouchers were made available to interstate travellers out of the 75,000 on offer.

EscapeGoat Adventures’ Deborah Fehler said overseas and interstate visitors made up two-thirds of the market.

She said participating in the scheme would “make a huge difference” to tourism operators.

“We’ve seen some tours slowly start to be rebooked thanks to interstate reopening,” Ms Fehler said.

“What we really want is for locals to look at Adelaide from the eyes of tourists and spend money here like they would interstate or overseas.”

trending in travel

Source: Read Full Article