08 August 2011

South Australia has launched a revamped southaustralia.com website with booking technology which the SA Government claims is “a step ahead of every other government competitor”.

The redeveloped southaustralia.com has new search and booking capabilities and visual design.

“Online booking is the favoured approach by the vast majority of tourists and this new website places South Australia at the forefront of tourism marketing in Australia,” says SA Tourism Minister, John Rau. 

“Potential visitors will now be able to browse, plan and book their perfect holiday online without having to leave the southaustralia.com website.

“This direct connectivity will mean more sales and revenue for the State’s tourism operators than ever before.”

The project is a collaboration of South Australian Tourism Commission and development partners Deloitte Online and Nova Systems. 

The new website will allow consumers to search tourism products across the entire suite of Australian Tourism Data Warehouse product. ATDW is the national platform for digital tourism information and is supported by each state’s tourism authority.

When tourists search on southaustralia.com their results will be filtered to first show those tourism products that are bookable online and available for particular dates. 

The second and third phases of the website upgrade will include dedicated sites for international markets, versions for mobile devices, interactive maps and closer integration with social media websites.

The Minister says the new site has cost less so far than the previous site, and is cheaper and easier to update.