Nature has a bounty in South Australia

Adelaide: To many Arabs, Australia's tourism attractions tend to be limited to Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg.

There is good news for those who have wearied of going to these places, and even better news for those who haven't visited them at all. For one, it has 556 national parks - many of which are natural habitat preserves.

South Australia, one of Australia's largest states, has some of the country's best kept secrets.

"Tourism is a A$4.2 billion industry in South Australia, directly generating 30,000 jobs. We received 392,000 visitors last year," Andrew McEvoy, chief executive of the South Australia Tourism Commission (SATC), told Gulf News on Monday.

"The state plans to raise this to a A$6.3 billion industry in the next few years."

For this, the state is adding about 1,000 new hotel rooms within the next year and a half, to the existing 7,500 rooms.

He said the number of tourists from the Middle East to South Australia is still very low.

"The number of tourists from the Middle East last year was 1,600, so there is a lot of potential for growth.

"The Gulf region is absolutely essential and vital for our future growth."

He said the South Australian government has already approached both Emirates and Etihad Airways to start direct flights to Adelaide that could help increase tourist traffic from the Middle East. Right now, state capital Adelaide is not connected by direct flights to any of the Gulf states.

"We have had fruitful discussions with both airlines. Emirates will consider a flight in March next year or 2010, while Etihad will place Adelaide in its long-term plan," McEvoy said.

He said his government is planning to identify hotels and tourism sites for development so that foreign investors could invest in tourism projects that would help boost the sector.

"We find tourism-ready land for investors and help cut the red tape and make the business plan easier for the investors."

McEvoy said his organisation will extend all-out support to any Gulf investors to develop tourism projects, be it a hotel or a theme park.

Despite having a strong natural tourism attraction base, the state could not market its attractions to international markets. In 2006-07, South Australia received 375,200 tourists, or 7.3 per cent of Australia's tourism traffic of 5.15 million. It ranked fifth among Australia's eight states in terms of tourist arrivals in 2006-07.

However, the latest figures for the 12 months ended September 2007 show South Australia attracted 373,100 international visitors and seven million international visitor room-nights.

South Australia is rich in natural beauty and has wildlife preserves and natural habitats.

Its Kangaroo Islands and Flinders Range are strong attractions to lure visitors to the state.

"South Australia is Australia's up close and personal experience with nature," McEvoy said.