WOMADelaide
More Jobs, More Business and More Stays: Highlights from AEDA's 2024/25 Annual Report
Last updated 06 Nov, 2025
The Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) has released its 2024/25 Annual Report, which highlights the Agency’s wins in the last financial year.
From building partnerships with city businesses to boost visitation and spending, to investing in the festivals and events that South Australia is known for—AEDA's programs continue to bolster Adelaide's economy.
With its strategic partnerships with businesses, events and tourism, AEDA plays a key role in the city’s ongoing growth.
Find out more about AEDA's impact, see our highlights from the annual report below.
Business, Investment & Residential Growth
- More than $1 million was invested in AEDA’s Strategic Partners—Business Events Adelaide, Festival City ADL, Renew Adelaide, Study Adelaide, MTPConnect and University of Adelaide/ThincLab—stimulating economic growth across the city.
- Businesses, government and other city stakeholders were provided with topical updates about Adelaide's economic landscape through Data4Lunch and a sold-out 2025 AEDA Business Summit.
- AEDA’s Welcome to Adelaide initiative supported 18 businesses to transition their staff into the city, relocating or creating 1,060 jobs.
- The third round of AEDA’s Games Plus Support Program supported 12 early-stage developers.
- AEDA generated 3,860 potential jobs in the city by addressing investment support and business growth enquiries.
Visitor Growth
- The Events and Festivals Sponsorship Program provided $1.775 million in funding to support 20 events and festivals, attracting more than 5.6 million attendees to the city and generating a gross economic impact of $470 million.
- The Commercial Events and Festivals Sponsorship Program provided $462,500 in funding to support 22 events and festivals, attracting more than 1.5 million attendees who spent an estimated $85 million.
- Demand for city accommodation grew 8.5 per cent from the previous financial year, up from 1.88 million room bookings to 2.04 million.
- AEDA consulted with cultural institutions along North Terrace to identify opportunities to increase visitation with the opening of the new Visitor Experience Centre in 2026.
- Through the Tourism Product Accelerator Program, presented in partnership with Tourism Accelerator, 10 city businesses were supported to develop 18 new, bookable tourism products, generating more exciting experiences to bring visitors into the city.
Brand & Marketing
- Spending across the city and North Adelaide reached $4.2 billion, up 3.4 per cent from the previous financial year.
- AEDA worked with the Adelaide Botanic Gardens & State Herbarium to bring the exclusive Chihuly in the Botanic Garden exhibition to Adelaide. AEDA also developed the Adelaide Celebrates Glass Trail to raise awareness of the exhibition and participating city businesses.
- The 'See for Yourself' campaign, run through Experience Adelaide, challenged outdated perceptions that the city is 'boring' and ‘sleepy’ in winter, profiling more than 115 businesses and generating more than 2,465 leads for city operators.
- Experience Adelaide’s Winter Events campaign highlighted festivals such as Tasting Australia, DreamBIG Children’s Festival, Illuminate Adelaide and more, generating more than 6,000 leads for featured events.
- The third iteration of ADL Fashion Week was a huge success with more than 2,200 tickets sold in 2024, up 12 per cent from 2023.
Rundle Mall
- Bolstered by a robust program of activations such as MallFest, Colours of Asia, Gather Round, Urban Kitchen and City Sessions, spending in Rundle Mall increased by 6 per cent to $1.5 billion, resulting in record-breaking spending and foot traffic on Black Friday and during December 2024.
- The precinct’s strip vacancy rate was 3.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2024/25—the lowest among major mall strips in the country and a remarkable achievement given Adelaide’s changing retail landscape.