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SACE Stage 2 · South Australia

Tourism Scaling SACE 2026: Does It Scale Up or Down?

SATAC scales every SACE subject before an ATAR is calculated. The SATAC scaling report is the authority on what this subject did.

Does SACE Tourism scale up or down?

SATAC scales every SACE subject before an ATAR is calculated.

SATAC does not publish a per-subject raw-to-scaled conversion for this course in a form we can quote exactly, so there is no figure on this page — the direction above is sourced from the SATAC scaling report linked below, and should be read as directional rather than numeric.

You can't change the scaling. You can change the raw mark.

Scaling is decided by your cohort, after the exam, and nothing you do moves it. The raw mark is the only part of this you control — and the Tourism hub is 20 full-length model exams with mark-by-mark answer guides, revision notes, practice questions and flashcards, built for exactly that.

Preview Tourism free →SATAC ATAR calculator

The hub shows a sample revision note extract, one full exam question with its worked answer and the complete list of every exam and note title — no account needed to look around. Unlocking Tourism for life is $20 once, or $50 for any three subjects. See what's included →

What Tourism actually asks of you

School assessment is 70% of the Stage 2 Tourism result: Assessment Type 1 Folio (20%, at least two critical analysis assessments of secondary sources), Assessment Type 2 Practical Activity (25%, at least two activities using primary sources, usually beyond the classroom) and Assessment Type 3 Investigation (25%, one individual investigation of a tourism trend, development or issue, up to 1500 words or 10 minutes). Assessment Type 4 Examination is the external component, 30% of the result: a 130-minute online examination (e-exam) in which you interpret, compare and analyse sources (articles, data, promotional material, models, photographs and video) based on the three themes. There is no separate reading time; the 2026 timetable lists Tourism in blue (e-exam), not red. The 2025 Subject Assessment Advice describes Part A: Short Responses (50 marks, four questions with lettered parts, each on its own sources) and Part B: Extended Responses (30 marks, three questions on one shared source set: an analysis with a judgement, an evaluation of sources or a model, and three justified recommendations). Every question is compulsory. The result is a grade from A+ to E- against the performance standards.

The Tourism exam is Thursday 12 November 2026, 1.30 pm (130 minutes). Source: SACE timetable.

The 4 areas of study you are examined on

From the Stage 2 Tourism Subject Outline (2TOS20, accredited from 2011, reissued for 2025).

  • Theme 1 — Operations and Structures of the Tourism Industry
    How the industry is organised and how it behaves as a system: sectors and subsectors (transport, accommodation, attractions and activities, hospitality, tour operation and distribution, events and MICE), how they depend on and collaborate with each other through packages and joint marketing, and the role of local, state and federal governments and other organisations in regulation, infrastructure, marketing and funding. It also covers the economics of tourism (revenue, employment, the multiplier effect, leakage, seasonality), the types of tourism from mass to niche and special interest, and the nature of tourism employment.
    In the exam: Recent papers asked students to explain how employment in named sectors changed when cruise ships stopped visiting a Pacific nation, how sectors could collaborate through package deals, the economic benefits and multiplier effect of a major football event, the state government's role in that event, and the economic effects of an interest-rate rise and falling international visitation on a national economy.
    Where marks go missing: Writing about 'the economy' or 'businesses' instead of naming tourism sectors, and listing benefits without explaining how money moves. Markers rewarded students who named the accommodation, hospitality and attraction sectors and quoted figures from the source; one 2025 part told students not to discuss the multiplier model, and students who did lost the marks.
  • Theme 2 — Travellers' Motivations and Perceptions, and the Interaction of Host Community and Visitor
    Who tourists are and why they travel: definitions of tourist and tourism, push and pull factors, needs and expectations, market segmentation and consumer behaviour, and Plog's model of tourist types. The second half examines what happens when visitors and hosts meet: Doxey's Irridex, sociocultural impacts such as commodification, staged authenticity and the demonstration effect, cultural sustainability, and responsible tourism, including greenwashing by businesses and veneer environmentalism by tourists.
    In the exam: Each paper from 2023 to 2025 applied Plog's model or Doxey's Irridex to a source, and 2024 and 2025 also asked for the model's limitations; other parts asked for push and pull factors of working holiday makers or regenerative travellers, comparisons of two visitor markets and the campaigns aimed at them, and why a community would want to prevent cultural commodification.
    Where marks go missing: Confusing push factors (reasons within the traveller or home situation) with pull factors (destination attributes), and naming a Plog category or Irridex stage without evidence from the source. A limitation must be explained in the context given (for example, that a community is not homogeneous), not recited.
  • Theme 3 — Planning for and Managing Sustainable Tourism
    Sustainability seen through three interconnected aspects (economic, sociocultural, environmental) and the Triple Bottom Line; generational and intergenerational sustainability through long-term planning; the Butler Sequence and carrying capacity; methods of managing tourism such as site hardening, zoning, permits and caps, levies, codes of conduct and education; Indigenous perspectives, country and cultural sustainability; and the implications of mass tourism and preferred futures.
    In the exam: Part B Question 7 has asked for three justified recommendations every year (protecting a resort from greenwashing, protecting Antarctica, protecting whale sharks in the Maldives). Other parts placed Kakadu National Park on the Butler Sequence, linked glamping to rejuvenation, evaluated a festival's sustainability, evaluated a tourism tax, and asked for the usefulness and limitations of the Butler Sequence for Antarctica.
    Where marks go missing: Recommendations that ignore the context (boardwalks and hotels in Antarctica), repeat the same idea three times, or are listed without justification from the sources. When asked for usefulness and limitations of a model, many students simply described the stages instead.
  • Source analysis, data and extended response
    The skills that every exam question uses: quoting specific figures from tables and surveys, comparing groups and calculating simple percentages or changes, evaluating sources for validity, bias and accuracy, treating video sources as evidence, following command words, and writing structured extended responses with tourism terminology.
    In the exam: Question 1 in 2024 and 2025 opened with data parts rewarding specific percentages. Question 6 asked students to evaluate two sources for validity and bias in 2023 and 2025 and was the least successful question in both years.
    Where marks go missing: Describing a source's content instead of judging its validity and bias; misusing 'bias' and 'biased'; ignoring the video source; not giving a final judgement where 'analyse' or 'evaluate' is asked.

Full Tourism study-design guide →

How scaling works in South Australia

In South Australia, the SACE Board reports a grade from A+ to E- for each Stage 2 subject and SATAC converts it into a scaled score out of 20 (out of 10 for a 10-credit subject). It does not scale the grade directly: the grade for each assessment type and the external result are turned into a raw score out of 15, weighted by their share of the subject, then scaled so that the same level of achievement counts comparably whichever subjects a student took. The university aggregate, out of 90, is built from your best 90 credits of scaled scores — your best three 20-credit subjects in full plus a flexible 30 credits from a fourth subject, half-scores, 10-credit subjects or recognised studies — and the ATAR is your rank on that aggregate. Scaling is recalculated every year from that year's cohort, so any published figure describes one past cohort only.

What scaling is not

Scaling is not a difficulty rating and it is not a bonus. It compares how the students in one subject performed across every other subject they took, so a subject moves because of its cohort, not because of the paper. The consequence is practical: you cannot scale your way out of a weak result. The only lever you control is the raw mark, and the fastest way to move that is full-length timed practice against the real exam format.

SACE Tourism practice examsSATAC ATAR calculator

Questions

Does SACE Tourism scale up or down?

SATAC scales every SACE subject before any ATAR is calculated. We do not publish a figure for this subject; the SATAC scaling report is the authority.

How does subject scaling work in South Australia?

In South Australia, the SACE Board reports a grade from A+ to E- for each Stage 2 subject and SATAC converts it into a scaled score out of 20 (out of 10 for a 10-credit subject). It does not scale the grade directly: the grade for each assessment type and the external result are turned into a raw score out of 15, weighted by their share of the subject, then scaled so that the same level of achievement counts comparably whichever subjects a student took. The university aggregate, out of 90, is built from your best 90 credits of scaled scores — your best three 20-credit subjects in full plus a flexible 30 credits from a fourth subject, half-scores, 10-credit subjects or recognised studies — and the ATAR is your rank on that aggregate. Scaling is recalculated every year from that year's cohort, so any published figure describes one past cohort only.

Should I choose Tourism because of how it scales?

Scaling adjusts a whole cohort, not one student, so choosing a subject you will struggle in because it scales up is usually a worse trade than doing well in one that scales down. Check the prerequisites for the course you want first, then your interest and workload, and treat scaling as a tie-breaker. Scaling is also recalculated every year, so the figures in any report describe a past cohort rather than the year you are sitting.

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