Fleurieu Among SA’s Top-Performing Tourism Regions
The latest regional tourism data for the year ending December 2025 highlights the Fleurieu Peninsula as one of South Australia’s strongest-performing visitor destinations, consistently ranking at or near the top across key measures. The Fleurieu comes in at:
- Number 1 in SA for overnight visitor stays, with 3.49 million nights recorded in 2025.
- Number 1 for visitor spend, with $630 million injected into the region.
- Number 1 in SA for day trips, with 1.6 million trips taken – more than Adelaide’s population.
These results reflect the strength of the Economic Development team’s partnership with Fleurieu Peninsula Tourism (FPT) to deliver targeted destination marketing and industry support across the region. Here is just some of the tourism support recently delivered.
Digital marketing: FPT’s ongoing digital promotion of the region has delivered strong reach across all channels, with 503,200 Instagram views, 348,200 Facebook views and 30,000 TikTok views recorded between February and May 2026. The Fleurieu Peninsula website also attracted 37,000 users and generated 264,000 website interactions during this period. The current winter paid digital campaign is focused on driving intrastate conversions.
Collaboration with Cosi: Other collaborative campaigns continue to extend visibility, including recent features on South Aussie with Cosi highlighting Ginny Pig Distillery and Harvest the Fleurieu, alongside broader promotion of Mount Compass following the recent Tooperang fire.
ATDW success: A key focus is supporting local tourism businesses to use the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) to leverage national marketing channels. Alexandrina operators continue to benefit from ATDW listings, with top performers in the period including SteamRanger/Cockle Train, Kuti Shack, and Spirit of the Coorong.
Strong Coast is Calling results: The Coast is Calling campaign in response to the algal bloom crisis, supported locally and delivered by the South Australian Tourism Commission, generated more than $5.5 million from nearly 14,000 redemptions across two rounds.
Additional FPT initiatives include production of the Fleurieu Peninsula Visitor Guide, development of a First Nations Tourism Toolkit, and a new Nostalgic Travel campaign which will feature two of Alexandrina’s heritage operators, the PS Oscar W and SteamRanger – stay tuned.
Unpacking the 2025 Tourism Results
The Fleurieu Peninsula recorded 1.16 million overnight visits in the year to December 2025, contributing to a total of 3.49 million nights spent in the region. This reflects the region’s strong appeal for longer stays.
Visitor nights included 627,000 from international visitors, 608,000 from interstate visitors, and 2.26 million from intrastate travellers.
Domestic day trips also remained strong, with 1.6 million visits recorded across the region during the year.
This level of visitation continues to deliver significant economic benefit. Total visitor expenditure reached $630 million, reinforcing the importance of the visitor economy to local businesses and communities.
Domestic travel remains the primary driver of visitation, with strong intrastate demand supported by steady interstate travel and spend.
Note: Results are based on the new Domestic Tourism Statistics (DoTS) methodology and are therefore not directly comparable to previous reporting periods at this time.