Greg Fidge said there was "nothing special" in the city to attract people off the highway which made promoting tourism a waste of time.

"We should be promoting sport and pushing ourselves forward to being a centre of sporting excellence," he said.

"What do we have in Pirie that would attract people? What do we have that is so special to get people to come off the highway?

"We should be putting our efforts into something more constructive like promoting what we have already got."

He believes promoting sport would be the best way of attracting visitors to the city.

"If you promote tennis, it brings international stars to Port Pirie. Since the new hockey stadium was built it gets used every day of the weekend and we also have the Masters Games," he said.

He said the city, far from being a tourist attraction, was a "working man's town".

He said attracting bigger retail outlets would make the city more competitive with other country centres, but this process could be difficult.

"If you look at Whyalla they have Harvey Norman and Port Augusta has Big W," he said.

"I tackled a project a few years ago when I tried to get Target here, but the property manager basically said unless the population doubled in the next few years, then they wouldn't even bother about it."

Mayor Geoff Brock said the council was already directing its promoting strategies towards sporting events as well as tourism.

"That is part of tourism – if you are promoting sporting events, then you are also promoting tourism," he said.

He also said the council was moving forward to make the city a "regional shopping centre".