THIS year's Adelaide Festival generated a record $78.3 million of expenditure in South Australia. That was a 5 per cent increase on 2015 festival.
It was helped by visitors from interstate or overseas spending a record $28.2 million during their time here, up almost a quarter from 2015. 
In all, the festival attracted 19,800 visitors from overseas and interstate, and they took up 133,321 visitor bed nights in Adelaide. That was a 9 per cent increase on the 2015 figure.
Festival chair Judy Potter said the festival's economic impact continued to grow year on year, providing a vital injection to the state's economy.
"We are proud of our status as a destination event, and it is encouraging in the current economic climate to see our visitor-related expenditure increase at such a significant rate," she said.
Arts Minister Jack Snelling and Ms Potter chose Adelaide Airport's departure lounge to make the announcement yesterday.
"The festival is such an important part of the cultural fabric of SA and today's announcement demonstrates its enormous value in terms of boosting our economy, especially through cultural tourism," Mr Snelling said.
Festival chief executive Sandy Verschoor said the 2016 festival, the last to be directed by David Sefton, broke other records, too.
"(It had) the largest-ever ticketed event (Groupe F at Adelaide Oval), the fastest-selling dance show (Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch) and the highest-ever book sales at the Adelaide Writers Week," she said.
The figures were generated from surveys by Harrison Research and The Economic Research Consultants.They found that 95 per cent of visitors were either satisfied or very satisfied with the festival.