Gold Coast tourism: Tourists demand new challenges as adventure tourism explodes on the Gold Coast

The Gold Coast is out to prove its about more than just sunshine and beaches with a new breed of tourism getting visitors hearts racing and letting them leave the board shorts at home.

WITH lush forest and plenty of bushland the lure of the Gold Coast hinterland has a new breed of tourists heading for the hills and they’ve got cash to splash.

Adventure tourism is attracting new types of visitors to the region for everything from mountain bike riding to rock climbing, as niche adventure sports dig their hooks into the Gold Coast.

Numinbah Valley Gravity Park is among the industry’s big winners, recently collecting $35,000 in state government funding to develop facilities.

Mountain bike riders come from across the southeast, and as far away as Cairns for a day on the trail.

In the future there are hopes of hosting major competitions to draw riders from across the globe.

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Cairns mountain bike rider Tyson Jones clears the final ramp of the Numinbah Valley Gravity Park track on the Gold Coast in spectacular fashion. Photo: John McJannett @johnomcj

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NV Club spokesman Michael Murray said riders spent big money to go to good parks.

“The market around the world for this style of riding is just growing over the past five years, it’s huge,” he said.

“Down in Tasmania it’s massive, there’s a little old mining town called Derby that’s pulling in $30 million each year.”

The Coast hosted the World Parachuting Championships for the first time last October, attracting around 700 skydiving competitors from 50 countries.

Richard McCooey from the Australian Parachute Federation said the event was also a goldmine for the city.

“It’s certainly significant, with competitors, support people and families and people who stay on for holidays afterwards, it was a very big event for the Gold Coast,” he said.

At the time Assistant Minister for Tourism Industry Development Meaghan Scanlon predicted the event would draw $2 million into the local economy, as well as selling the city to the world through photos.

There has been a growing trend towards activity-based tourism. PicRichard/Webb

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The industry is on the radar of the Gold Coast’s peak tourism body with plans to grow the Coast’s reputation as Australia’s playground in 2019.

Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista said there was a strong shift in lifestyle and activity-based tourism in the area.

“If you’ve got a strong enough attraction in that space or something that you can’t get anywhere else then people will come especially for it,” she said.

“Particularly the demographic that’s attracted to something like mountain biking will travel for an experience and they also tend to stay a little bit longer and spend quite a bit of money while they’re here so it’s the type of niche market that we’re absolutely looking to tap in to.”

Originally published as Gold Coast tourism: Tourists demand new challenges as adventure tourism explodes on the Gold Coast