TiCSA Board
Annual Report 2023/24
Our Vision
A strong and valued voice for South Australia’s tourism industry.
Our Purpose
Building capabilities, advocating for, and bringing together South Australia’s diverse tourism industry to enable a sustainable and growing visitor economy.
Message from the Chair
I’m pleased to deliver my first annual report since being elected as your Chair. Thank you to outgoing Chair Eoin Loftus for his many years of service to the TiCSA community.
The return to pre-pandemic visitor economy growth this year has delivered reassurance and confidence to operators across the state. However, lagging international markets and no sign of an abating economic crisis a ecting domestic household expenditure have cast shadows. As your peak tourism industry body, TiCSA will continue to lead you through these challenges and support businesses to adapt and evolve to embrace new opportunities.
TiCSA has yet again had a highly productive year. The small TiCSA team, empowered by the board, achieved significant output, highlighting their commitment to maximising value for all members.
Delivery of the Quality Tourism Framework to assist our industry to meet and maintain best practice standards continued to underpin all our business capability activities. This year we delivered 41 workshops, 102 hours of business coaching, 17 In Conversation webinars, and our three major annual events: awards, conference and summit.
We celebrated success in the 2023 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards, with ten of South Australia’s most exceptional tourism businesses winning medals. Seven of our national finalists were recognised with a highly commended, signalling the quality of our businesses in all facets of tourism.
Our cornerstone advocacy and business capabilities events, the Tourism Summit
policy breakfast and South Australian Tourism Conference, were successfully delivered. The Tourism Conference returned to a two-day format and it was brilliant to hear so many delegates declare it one of our best.
We continued to support the formation South Australian Tourism Operators Council (SAATOC), an independent body for Aboriginal-owned tourism businesses, with an interim board elected. Establishing robust foundations that enable the realisation of a flourishing and authentic Aboriginal tourism industry are the current focus of the board.
Over the past year we’ve built on strong partnerships with government. We’ve enhanced collaboration with the South Australian Tourism Commission to make business development pathways clearer and to ensure your voice is consistently heard. On behalf of the Department for Environment and Water we distributed funding to support heritage tourism. In conjunction with Federal Government funding, we invested in the development of digital resources to promote tourism as a career.
Finally, I’m pleased to report that we end the 2023/24 year on a positive financial footing, and the board and I look forward to leveraging this to continue delivering on behalf of all our members in 2024/25.
Siggi Frede Chair
Quality Tourism Framework Annual Report 2023/24
Quality Tourism Accredited Businesses (QTAB) are recognised as professional, ethical, and reliable operators which deliver high-quality tourism experiences.
QTAB accreditation includes a complimentary ReviewPro account which collates all online reviews from 175 websites into a streamlined dashboard. Over 400 ReviewPro accounts have been activated.
2023 South Australian Tourism Awards
The South Australian Tourism Awards celebrate and acknowledge tourism businesses that have demonstrated outstanding achievements and success throughout the year. 27 winners and 4 Hall of Fame inductees were recognised at the 2023 South Australian Tourism Awards Gala Dinner on Friday 3 November at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
With funding support from State and Federal Government, and industry participation, we continued to promote tourism as a rewarding, lifelong career opportunity.
• We attended 2 major careers expos and gave talks at schools and universities
• We created 9 videos showcasing tourism jobs and the diversity of people working in tourism
• We established an image library of 290 images depicting 34 tourism careers
• We distributed 2335 careers guides and our digital version had 1315 reads and 130 downloads.
In Conversation sessions
TiCSA’s In Conversation sessions bring together industry experts and leaders for discussions on relevant topics to keep members engaged, updated and informed.
Advocacy and Industry Representation
The Tourism Summit breakfast event on 22 February 2024 provided a great forum to consider the challenges and opportunities in South Australia's tourism sector, particularly in the face of ongoing change in both our visitors and the business climate.
The annual South Australian Tourism Conference took place on Tuesday and Wednesday 4-5 June at the Morphettville Racecourse. This year’s event explored the theme of Engage, Excel: Navigating the Future of Tourism, delving into the evolving landscape across the tourism industry, with a focus firmly on our future visitors.
Partnerships
TiCSA is proud to have valuable partnerships with leading groups that are passionate about the tourism industry and business development. Our partnership model provides tailored platforms for organisations to raise their profile, make connections, and support our community. In the 2023/24 financial year TiCSA partnerships with 57 organisations was valued at $298,975.10.
As the state’s peak tourism body, TiCSA remains committed to advocating to Government on behalf of our members and the broader industry to help businesses remain resilient and thrive.
7 Leadership Luncheons
2 Visitor Economy Coalition meetings
Ongoing correspondence with Members of Parliament
Advocacy activity included:
• Submissions to four National Park management plans.
• Representations made on behalf of businesses to Ministers and State Government departments on significant issues impacting operations.
• Aviation Green paper joint submission with SATC.
• 20-Year State Infrastructure Strategy submission.
We partnered with JFA Purple Orange, leading disabilities advocates, to deliver the Tourism Local Navigator Pilot project in South Australia. The aim of this program was to develop resources and provide support to SME tourism businesses to increase employment opportunities for people who live with a disability. We rolled out Disability Inclusion Awareness and Inclusive Recruitment training for industry and also participated in the pilot program to improve our own inclusive
and
The Business Capabilities Program consists of workshops, webinars and one-on-one business coaching. The program is designed to develop the skills and capabilities of the tourism industry with short, practical, and relevant sessions. Workshop topics included Tourism Fundamentals, Accessible Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Customer Service, and Tourism Marketing.
hours of one-on-one
In Conversation webinars
Coober Pedy
• Tiny Tourism Town: Burra
• Peoples’ Choice: Burra
In partnership with the Department for Environment & Water we delivered the Activating Heritage Tourism Program to support the activation and enhancement of our state’s heritage tourism o erings. Key activities:
• Delivered two online webinars & workshops to improve understanding of delivering high quality heritage tourism experiences
• Prepared resources to assist operators understand Heritage Interpretation
• Delivered a $150,000 grant program – 13 grant recipients
2024 South Australian Tourism Summit
South Australian Tourism Conference