Tourism, arts & creative industries

Contributing to a vibrant creative ecosytem

A strong creative sector can boost economies and have a significant social impact on society. The creative ecosystem continues to evolve due to health, environmental, social and political changes, and artistic and creative industries are critical to developing a society that is culturally diverse and socially inclusive.

To ensure South Australia continues to deliver world-class tourism experiences and thriving arts and cultural organisations, UniSA is committed to working with creative partners to achieve long-term business and social impact.

Finding these innovative solutions requires different expertise, so we bring together researchers from multidisciplinary areas, including visual art and design, communication, architecture and planning, journalism, writing and publishing, marketing, performing arts, and tourism and event management.

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What we do

Providing organisational mentoring

Developing strategies to maximise creative ecosystems

Determining the future format of museums

Researching tourism behaviour, market segmentation and destination marketing

Finding ways to enhance pathways and prospects for Aboriginal Peoples

We work with the creative and cultural sector to create career ready graduates and address the skills and research gaps our partners face. We inspire and nurture young talent through co-created degrees, work integrated learning opportunities, and project-based PhD opportunities. Our researchers and students work with industry on many projects, including:

Applying intercultural language learning to inform the national language curriculum, including Aboriginal languages
Developing strategies to make Australia’s creative workforce more socially inclusive
Identifying how to utilise and expand on art festivals to grow South Australia’s tourism industry
Establishing the role of iconic foods in attracting domestic tourism
Developing a 3D digital projection environment that contributes insights into interactive media, machine learning and human-computer interaction
Responding to the impact of COVID-19 on the creative and tourism sectors.

With expert researchers and state-of-the-art facilities, we have the capability to work with partners on a range of sector related challenges and opportunities.

Our partners

At UniSA, we match our research strengths and capability with the demands and opportunities of our partners, and maximise the mutual benefits of engagement.

UniSA's Enterprise Hub

The Enterprise Hub creates and sustains partnerships with organisations of all sizes, leveraging UniSA’s industry expertise and experience to solve problems, innovate and add value. Discover a range of services that can help you achieve your business goals.

Why partner with UniSA?

WORLD-CLASS RESEARCH IN CULTURAL STUDIES AND LINGUISTICS, VISUAL ARTS, DESIGN AND CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING

2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)

No.1 IN AUSTRALIA FOR RESEARCH IMPACT AND ENGAGEMENT

2018 ARC Engagement and Impact Assessment (EI), Combined Impact – Approach to Impact and Engagement on Assessed
Fields.

SA’s No.1 UNIVERSITY FOR COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM RESEARCH

The only university in SA to have its Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services research rated above world standard. 2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), 2-digit.

#1 YOUNG UNIVERSITY IN AUSTRALIA FOR INDUSTRY INCOME

2023 THE World University Rankings

100% OF OUR ASSESSED RESEARCH RATED AT OR ABOVE WORLD-CLASS

2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), 4-digit Fields of Research.

#1 YOUNG UNIVERSITY IN AUSTRALIA FOR INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS

2023 THE Young University Rankings – Industry Income Indicator.

Partner case studies

Local talent meeting global VFX demand

To meet the Australian film and television industries need for fresh and highly skilled visual effects talent, UniSA and Rising Sun Pictures partnered up to deliver tailored VFX postgraduate programs, student placements and mentorship opportunities.

RSP saw the opportunity to not only nurture creativity and develop workforce-ready artists, but also invest back into their state of origin. Since this partnerships inception in 2015, approximately 30 UniSA alumni are currently employed at RSP and over 120 graduates working in industry.

“Course delivery at RSP is more than just learning technical skills, we value add to the students’ experience here by incorporating master classes, resume, show reel and interview tips. Our goal is to make the students’ learning as immersive as possible and be studio ready, and I think we’ve successfully achieved that.”

Anna Hodge, Manager of Training and Education , Rising Sun Pictures

Explore our research

As Australia’s University of Enterprise, our research centres work closely with industry on projects that deliver improvements in tourism, arts and creative industries.

Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments

Discover the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE), an innovative research group at the University of South Australia.

Centre for Enterprise Dynamics in Global Economies

UniSA’s Centre for Enterprise Dynamics in Global Economies generates innovative solutions to build sustainable local, regional & global prosperity.

Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3)

Find out more about the Creative People, Products and Places (CP3) Research Centre at UniSA.

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute is the world’s largest institute for research into marketing. Based within UniSA Business, the Institute is the home of evidence-based marketing. Over 60 Marketing Scientists are making...

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Experts in tourism, arts and creative industries

Meet our researchers and learn about how they are working towards solving industry and partner challenges.

Governance, leadership, and performance management research is my area of focus and as Director of the CERM Performance Indicators, I work closely with industry to benchmark and manage performance of sport and leisure organisations. CERM PI allows organisations to review its current performance against internal and industry-wide benchmarks, helping identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

Professor Ian O'Boyle
Director, CERM Performance Indicators

Professor Ian O'Boyle
Director, CERM Performance Indicators

As a housing researcher I work collaboratively with industry to create new housing typologies across infill, density, diversity, ageing in place, suburbia, heritage and character. One challenge faced by councils today is how to retain low scale, leafy and character-filled suburbs, while increasing housing numbers and avoiding gentrification and lack of housing variety. So together with industry, including the SA Planning Commission and Unley, Burnside, Walkerville and Prospect councils, we applied my Bluefield Housing model, to deliver new small-scale cohousing solutions located around shared gardens.

Dr Damian Madigan

Dr Damian Madigan

My research navigates the complexities surrounding arts and cultural work, investigating creative micro-enterprise; social inclusion, diversity and creative employment; and the importance of location and strong creative ecosystems to grow cultural and creative industries. In collaboration with Guildhouse, my team has examined the impact of mentorship on creative careers and determined the key features of a successful mentorship program for mentors and mentees. This research has informed enhancements to Guildhouse’s current Catapult mentorship program.

Professor Susan Luckman
Director, Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3)

Professor Susan Luckman
Director, Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3)

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Tourism, arts and creative industries training and development

UniSA offers a range of bachelor, master, PhD and Executive Education programs in arts, creative industries, journalism, film and television, communication and media, marketing, and tourism and event management that align to the sector’s needs in developing and transforming its future workforce.