Adelaide hotels are blocking out all available rooms for November 2026 with high hopes of cashing in on the rich and famous for COP31. But Mike Smithson fears tourism chiefs have no plan B if the bid doesn’t check out.

Hosting the world’s most prominent climate conference in November next year would be a global coup which the Premier can’t resist.

He won’t have long to wait for a decision which is due in Brazil within days.

The United Nations COP31 would add to his list of achievements lifting the sometimes-forgotten city of Adelaide onto the next level of places to remember.

Given the enormity of the project and the economic benefits it would generate, you would expect our most senior tourism commission officials to be across every grain of minutiae.

But they’re not, and that’s where it gets interesting.

Midas Mali appeared to have landed the big fish when the Prime Minister announced Adelaide as Australia’s host city during a fleeting but significant election campaign announcement earlier this year.

The only global competition was, and still is, Turkiye which may be fancied by some but poses an obvious issue of political instability to most others.

Having world delegates descend on Adelaide almost seemed a formality six months ago, but unless Turkiye backs out of the race, neither of us will get it this time around and it will be held in Bonn, Germany.

With up to........

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