State offering $100 off winter holidays

South Australians and interstate visitors will have access to cheaper accommodation thanks to a fourth round of tourism vouchers to splurge on a staycation during winter.

Premier Steven Marshall, who made the announcement on Monday, said the first two rounds were “magnificently successful” where 62,000 additional night bookings were made.

The third round — which is currently underway — focused on local experiences and tours where more than 100,000 people registered for the random electronic ballot.

Under the Great State Voucher Scheme which will launch in late May, $100 vouchers are on offer for eligible CBD accommodation services while $50 is applicable to participating hotels in the suburbs or regions.

About 50,000 vouchers will be up for grabs.

Vouchers up to $100 will be on offer for hotel stays in winter. Picture: Supplied / Hotel IndigoSource:Supplied

“We think it’s really important — for June, July, August; months which are traditionally slower — to do everything we can to maintain and grow the number of people employed in this sector,” Mr Marshall said.

“It’s all a part of making these small changes, these interventions, to keep the accommodation volumes up across the state and take advantage of this situation where more people are getting out, exploring their own backyards and seeing what they love in SA.

“We think there's going to be a permanent pivot where people holiday at home more post-coronavirus, so we want as many people to visit our great state.”

Mr Marshall said it had not yet been decided if a ballot process would be used to delegate vouchers to participants.

He said the system from the third round would be reviewed and would advise on a decision at a later date.

SA Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said an expression of interest is yet to go out to hotels.

“What we’ve seen with the accommodation programs is it stimulates expenditure well beyond the hotels and filters right through the economy,” he said.

“We’re looking at midweek proposition — (and) how do we get people to stay longer mid week — so we’re working with hoteliers on that.”

EOS by SkyCity was one of the hotels that previously participated in the scheme. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Mr Harrex said the agency was working with other states because they were wanting to replicate the program.

He said there was also a push to drive more interstate demand because those travellers stayed more nights.

“Majority of vouchers are for South Australians but we do open it up for interstaters.

“We see a real opportunity for this. They spend three time (the amount) of what (South Australians) do so it's great to get that additional injection of income into our state.”

About 50,000 people were contacted last week after being randomly selected and gifted the $50, $100 or $200 voucher on tours and experiences.

Mr Marshall said more than 4500 people entered the ballot from interstate.

Bookings for the experiences begin on Tuesday.

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