Photo: Kangaroo Island Business – Beach Barista – South Australian Tourism Commission
A growing number of local businesses on Kangaroo Island are voicing concerns about the rising costs of travel to and from the island.
As part of the South Australian Business Chamber’s Regional Voice Survey, which launched this week, a comprehensive study of business issues on the island has highlighted some unique challenges faced by operators, despite their generally optimistic outlook.
Travelling to Kangaroo Island from Adelaide offers two options: a 45-minute ferry ride from Cape Jervis, which itself is a 97-minute drive from Adelaide or a 30-minute flight from Adelaide Airport.
The ferry ride for a standard sedan and one passenger on a one-way trip costs around $180, while a QantasLink flight is priced at approximately $250 — double the cost of a typical flight to Melbourne.
One accommodation provider on Kangaroo Island, in response to the Regional Voice Survey, expressed the need for lower travel costs. “Lowering the cost of getting to the island would be good,” they commented.
“While it’s cheaper for residents, it’s more expensive for tourists, which is surely affecting visitor numbers,” they added, referring to the high ferry prices.
“The same goes for airfares — they’re insanely expensive. If the government could find a way to reduce these costs, it would be beneficial.”
According to Tourism Research Australia, the value of the visitor economy on Kangaroo Island grew from $190 million in 2019 to $280 million in 2023, exceeding year-end targets of $199 million for 2025 and $268 million for 2030.
In 2023 alone, there were over 66,000 domestic day trips to the island, along with 205,000 overnight visitors, contributing to a total of 870,000 visitor nights.
Kangaroo Island boasts more than 110 tourism businesses, employing 1,000 staff — equivalent to one in three jobs on the island being tourism-related.
Chart — South Australian Tourism Commission
For an economy so heavily reliant on tourism, the growing concern among businesses about rising travel costs is significant.
“The cost of ferry travel has had a major impact on us, with guests booking and then cancelling once they find out how much it costs to get to Kangaroo Island,” reported another accommodation provider.
“We have one ferry and some hit-or-miss airlines,” said another. “When the ferry doesn’t run, we get no tourists. This winter [2023], ferry breakdowns and both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance have impacted all tourism operators,” another business owner noted.
In March of this year, the State Government released a draft Kangaroo Island Regional Plan (KIRP) through the State Planning Commission, as part of seven new regional plans for South Australia.
The KIRP is a “visionary” 30-year roadmap for Kangaroo Island, aimed at fostering a resilient, prosperous, healthy, and connected future for the island’s communities. The plan emphasises the need for infrastructure improvements across the island, with transport connectivity identified as a priority.
Craig Holden, Chair of the State Planning Commission, stated, “Communities on Kangaroo Island, now and in the future, are relying on us to make responsible, equitable, and economically sound planning decisions while recognising and addressing the many challenges they and their island face.”
The calls for government intervention to reduce travel costs to Kangaroo Island come in the wake of the dual impacts of COVID-19 and the Black Summer bushfires, which devastated the island’s accommodation, hospitality, and tourism sectors.
The rising cost of travel for tourists aligns with the broader issue of increasing business expenses, a challenge felt not just on Kangaroo Island but across the state.
The growing cost of transporting goods and supplies from the mainland is another pressing issue for island operators.
Despite these challenges, Kangaroo Island remains optimistic about its future. The Regional Voice Survey reveals that the island’s economic confidence indices have nearly returned to 2018 levels. Kangaroo Island businesses confidence in the national economy rose to 109.5 points, compared to 119.7 in 2018.
Among the nine regions studied in the survey, Kangaroo Island showed the highest economic confidence, more than 13.2 points above the Murraylands region, and Eyre Peninsula & West Coast coming in second.
Graph: Regional Voice Survey 2024
Businesses on Kangaroo Island reported that energy costs, economic infrastructure needs, and council rates and operations are the most significant issues they face. Additionally, they identified skills and labour availability and a lack of consumer demand as major challenges affecting the region as a whole.
For more information on the issues faced by businesses on Kangaroo Island and across regional South Australia, visit sabusinesschamber.com.au/regionalvoice.
