Time to party as South Australia ranks in Lonely Planet’s best

Adelaide, Australia - January 26, 2016: People gathered in Elder Park to celebrate and watch the Australia Day fireworks. More than 40000 of people attended the event.

South Australia is one of the best places on the planet to visit in 2017, according to internationally-renowned travel company Lonely Planet, and the state is celebrating with a free party.

Ranking in the top five must-see regions in the world, South Australia was the only Australian destination to feature in Lonely Planet’s Best of Travel 2017.

The southern state, described as a “delicious feast suitable to anyone’s taste”, is celebrating the win, which features the top regions, cities and countries to visit around the world.

South Australia ranked fifth, behind Choquequirao in Peru, Taranaki in New Zealand, The Azores in Portugal and North Wales in the United Kingdom.

Lonely Planet endorsed Adelaide in 2014, when the city was ranked one of the top 10 cities in the world to visit.

In addition to the overall state win, the 66-kilometre Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, which was formally opened earlier this month, was also named in the guide under “best new openings”.

Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said “from the state’s far north to Kangaroo Island and everything in between, South Australia is home to some of the world’s most picturesque scenery, diverse regions and amazing food and wine,”.

“We know that South Australia is a great place to live and home of some of the nation’s best events and this major accolade will help thousands more people from interstate and overseas discover what our state has to offer.”

Travellers to South Australia contributed almost $6 billion to the economy each year, with much of that being spent in the state’s regions and tourism jobs had grown by 4,000 in the past two years.

As part of the Lonely Plant guide endorsement, South Australia is also being featured on a Snapchat story for 24 hours from 6:30pm on Tuesday and images and videos from across the state will be sent to more than 100 million Snapchat users across the world.

Best of all, the Government will hold a free celebratory party in the city on Friday night.

Congrats and party on South Australia.

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