The Australian Football League’s (AFL) Gather Round earlier this month delivered a major boost to South Australia’s visitor economy, thanks to record-breaking crowds and hospitality spending.
A total of 269,506 fans attended nine AFL football matches across the state for the AFL Gather Round 2025, while the Footy Festival drew in 118,543 visitors over four days – an increase of 17% on 2024.
The Friday night of the round, which took place on April 11, was the strongest night ever for hotel room occupancy and revenue across greater metropolitan Adelaide. A total of 10,669 rooms were occupied, generating a revenue of A$4.8m (£2.3m/€2.7m/$3m).
For the entire round – from Thursday to Saturday night – data showed that average occupancy amounted to 93%, average rooms occupied totalled 10,587 and average revenue equalled A$3.7m.
Airlines operated more than 90 additional domestic flights in the lead up to the AFL Gather Round 2025 when compared with March.
The data was collected by STR, a specialist in hospitality data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights.
“In South Australia, we host major events like nowhere else and many visitors here for AFL Gather Round 2025 have experienced that for themselves,” said Acting Minister For Tourism, Andrea Michaels.
“With more than 269,000 fans at matches and record-breaking festival attendance, the event has delivered a significant boost to our state including the highest ever number of rooms booked in Adelaide.
“Gather Round is about more than just footy – it’s an opportunity to showcase our regions, our hospitality, and our world-class food and wine to visitors from across the country with many of those operators being small businesses who have benefited significantly from the influx of people coming into South Australia.”