NEW REALITIES
ACTIVATING THE POTENTIAL FOR THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND TOURISM IN REGIONAL SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Dr . Heather Robinson and Simon Millcock
BACKGROUND There is increasing attention , nationally and internationally , on the importance of the creative economy as one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy .
EDA member and CEO of the Legatus Group , Simon Millcock has been a strong advocate for supporting the growth of the creative industries . He initially became involved with the sector through a report looking at supply and demand for the creative industries in North Queensland . This joint project between the Townsville City Council and James Cook University was titled “ Growing the creative industries in Townsville ”. The report was released 2015 and led to successful growth in that region .
Moving back to South Australia in 2018 ,
Simon was instrumental in developing a series of partnerships with universities via MoUs , Collaboration Agreements and use of the APR Intern Program on behalf of the 15 members councils of the Legatus Group . These partnerships include areas such as waste , wastewater , volunteering , wellbeing , sustainability and the creative industries , which is the basis of this paper . Reports from these collaborations can be found at :
www . legatus . sa . gov . au
The Legatus Group ’ s Strategic and Business Plans include a focus on the key roles of local government and are broader than that of organisations with a primary focus on economic development or natural resource management . Their purview includes maintaining and developing both local and visitor amenities that support the growth of regional and subregional tourism opportunities as well as integrated visitor information services .
The Legatus Tourism Visitor Information Services project made three recommendations to improve the visitor experience across the regions :
• Regional : focussing on tourism regions rather than local government boundaries , to support regional planning and delivery , as well as the allocation and sharing of costs and resources .
• Visitor-centric : ensuring that Visitor Information Services are responsive to visitor needs providing information people want when and how they want it .
• Blended : providing a range of mixed
VOL 14 NO 2 2021 36 www . edaustralia . com . au