The long-awaited return of the Tour Down Under was well-received by South Australian local businesses, giving them incredible trade during the event. However, discussion for improved management of road closures became a focus area for even greater success in the future. (Image: Jack Trehearne)
By Jack Trehearne | @JackTrehearne
The Tour Down Under returned last week after a two-year layoff as the world’s best bike riders traversed around metropolitan and regional South Australia. The races were entertaining as always, with Jay Vine winning for the men, and Grace Brown emerging victorious in the women’s competition.
Approximately 780,000 people flocked to the various race stages throughout the week. In a recent statement, State Tourism Minister Zoe Bettison thanked the South Australian community for their enthusiasm towards the event.
“Thank you to everyone who has turned out to cheer on the riders, support local businesses all along the routes and celebrate everything SA has to offer, and thank you to every South Australian for supporting the event, for being patient with all the roadworks and for welcoming visitors from all over the world,” Ms Bettison said.
“South Australians are always the biggest advocates of our beautiful State.”
As Ms Bettison mentions, although the combined total of nearly 800,000 South Australians came to watch the various races, local businesses were also a beneficiary.
One of those businesses is the Emma & Ivy café in Lobethal. Cynthia Ball, a manager at Emma & Ivy, said that this year’s Tour Down Under attracted many customers from all over the world who hadn’t heard of the café.
“We got heaps of international guests throughout the week … This year especially has been hectic. We could barely walk by the end of the week,” Ms Ball said.
“Especially with everyone riding past as well … even on the charity run, lots of people stopped for coffee and breakfast because they had never seen our café before, and everyone said they will be back.”
Ball said that employees of the café were also able to get into the spirit of the festivities, and that the Tour Down Under benefits the community as a whole.
“It’s not only good for local businesses, but it also brings a nice morale … even decorating the store … everyone in Lobethal decorates the street. It is really nice,” Ms Ball said.
“I think [the Tour Down Under] positively impacts not only cafés, but newsagencies, pubs, and all of the other businesses.”
Although this year’s event was declared a rousing success by the SA community, there were still some minor complaints about the management of road closures from various businesses.
Andrew Moncrieff, a manager at the Dirty Doris diner in Aldgate, said this year’s Tour Down Under brought large numbers of the internal Aldgate community to the diner to watch the race, which he was extremely grateful for, but road closures blocked some customers wanting to come from the freeway.
“We had all of our regulars coming out that could walk and drive here [to the café] from Aldgate, but unfortunately missed some business coming from the city due to the road closures,” Mr Moncrieff said.
“Having said that, we are grateful for the opportunity the Tour Down Under provided. The road closures are a fairly common complaint, but you can’t execute the event without doing so, and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
“We were also really appreciative of the Adelaide Hills Council for enabling us to use the verge for additional seating on the day, for which we received extremely positive feedback.”
Leith Mudge, an elected Councillor of the Adelaide Hills Council, said the event was of great benefit to South Australia, but echoed similar concerns about the road closures.
“This year SAPOL insisted for the first time on completely closing roads along the entire route for an extended period, which caused some significant disruption to local businesses,” Mr Mudge said.
“This was compounded by reports that some of these roads were closed earlier than they were meant to be, which caused additional disruption with reports that employees were not able to get through to allow businesses to open.
“This is certainly an area that can be improved … I do, however, believe that while there were disruptions, the benefits from this event outweigh the downside and I believe that a proper de-brief involving all stakeholders should be able to minimise these further.”
Councillor Mudge’s opinions are personal to him and do not necessarily reflect those of the Adelaide Hills Council.
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