Business Gold Coast: Australian Tourism Exchange to be held on Gold Coast April-May 2023
The Gold Coast has scored a major tourism coup which will inject more than $9m into the economy in just five days. Here's how we did it.
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The Gold Coast will host the southern hemisphere’s biggest international tourism convention, aiding the revival of the city’s largest industry and bringing millions of dollars into the local economy.
More than 2000 people, including leading industry figures, travel agents, airline executives and media from more than 70 countries, will come to the Coast next year for the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) – which will be the first major event of this kind in the city since the Covid pandemic began in 2020.
Held from April 30 to May 4, it will be the first time the Gold Coast has hosted the Exchange since 2016.
Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said the tourism coup would act as a springboard for the industry’s continued revival.
“Securing Australia’s largest annual travel and tourism business-to-business event is an enormous coup for the city that will showcase the breadth and depth of Gold Coast’s venues, products and experiences,” she said.
“A key learning from Covid-19 is that it has radically disrupted the travel conversation and diversified the experiences people are looking to have.
“We have an enormous story to tell here on the Gold Coast with more than $1bn invested in new tourism infrastructure over the past two years alone including 3000 hotel rooms either completed or underway.”
ATE was founded in 1982 and allows tourism operators to promote their products directly to retailers and travel representatives from around the world.
Estimates suggest the five-day event will inject more than $9m into the economy and will allow local operators, hoteliers and restaurateurs to showcase their operations.
Tourism was worth more than $6bn annually to the city’s economy before Covid.
Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the event would be a key showcase for the Gold Coast’s operators.
“Queensland tourism operators have worked hard during the pandemic by building back better and investing in new and upgraded tourism experiences to attract a new generation of visitors,” he said.
“While the ATE will be a significant addition to the Gold Coast’s economic recovery plan, the longer-term international benefit for Queensland tourism will potentially run into billions of dollars.
“ATE is a tremendously important event for international tourism on the Gold Coast, Queensland and Australia.”
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate welcomed ATE’s return
“What a shot in the arm for our tourism industry and local economy to again host the premier tourism exchange, right here on the Gold Coast,” he said.
“2016 was a long time ago so to see ATE back where it belongs is a huge coup and I applaud Destination Gold Coast, Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Australia and all parties for making it happen. I can’t wait.’’
Revealed: How US and UK tourists will help Coast's economy fully recover from Covid
Tourism leaders want to resell the Gold Coast to the UK and Japan in the next step towards re-establishing the city as Australia’s visitor capital.
Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) and Destination Gold Coast are taking a long-term approach to reviving the industry, worth more than $6bn pre-Covid, with the focus on luring new visitors as well as continuing to focus on the domestic market.
With visitors from the city’s biggest pre-Covid international market – China – not expected to return until 2024 at least, the focus is turning to other markets to underline the revival.
Destination Gold Coast chairwoman Adrienne Readings said the city was “match fit”.
“We are coming out of the boxes very quickly on the back of a very successful Easter and we want to get back to the era of 2019, which was a huge success for the Gold Coast,” she said.
“China is unlikely to be back until 2024 so there is no question that we will be relying more on the domestic market going forward while we build up our international access.
“We will be looking to the US, UK and Japan to support us internationally in the immediate future.”
TEQ chairman Brett Godfrey said the Gold Coast had enjoyed a “stonking” Easter period on the back of pent-up demand from domestic visitors after two years of Covid lockdowns and border closures.
However, he warned the city could face a backwards step if conditions took a turn for the worse.
“Hopefully it will stay but we do have to be cognisant that if we do not get this right, the people who did stay and play here will go overseas now the borders are open,” he said.
“We need to think a little outside the box. The Gold Coast is a fabulous package but it’s more than just the coast, it has the hinterland too.
“We have to start thinking about all the experiences, including those that people do not know about.”
Mr Godfrey said a state government panel was reviewing tourist attractions that could be better promoted.
The first plank of the industry rebuild was unveiled in March with Gold Coast-style hotel rooms recreated in one of Disney’s Tokyo hotels to help sell the tourism mecca to the highly lucrative Japanese market.
Ms Readings said travel would not return in the same way as its pre-2020 habits.
“The world looks very different at the moment so it is about making sensible decisions rather than knee-jerk reactions,” she said.
“A lot of planning is going on both with TEQ and the Gold Coast. We’ve been working on our strategies and built up our team to best support this.”
Revealed: When Gold Coast's economy will fully recover from Covid
The Gold Coast’s tourism sector will not return to its bumper pre-Covid levels until 2025, the industry’s leader has warned.
Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan has warned the sector’s recovery will be slow and difficult but insisted the organisation had a plan to rebuild the city’s biggest industry.
“For the first time in almost two years, the Gold Coast is open for business to domestic and international arrivals and Queensland has a $200m aviation war chest to attract new flights direct to our doorstep,” she said.
“While it will take some two to three years before we can expect to see Gold Coast tourism reach pre-Covid visitor levels, it’s about laying the right foundation today to realise the Gold Coast’s full potential into the future to be Australia’s premier tourism destination for leisure, business, events and visiting friends and relatives.
TOURISM RETURN TO BRING $1.3B BOOST TO GC ECONOMY
“With this solid foundation in place, we now need to turbocharge our activities to no longer just survive but thrive.”
The first plank of the industry rebuild was unveiled last week with Gold Coast-style hotel rooms recreated in one of Disney’s Tokyo hotels to help sell the tourism mecca to the highly lucrative Japanese market.
Destination Gold Coast has revamped its leadership team to coincide with the reopening of international borders.
They include new strategy head and former Bulletin editor Rachel Hancock, destination and marketing boss Dion Workman, business events head Selina Sinclair and aviation industry veteran Aubrey Swift who will overlook business capability.
Ms O’Callaghan said her new management team had more than a century of experience between them and would help return the Gold Coast to its position as the nation’s tourism capital.
“In the past two years, the Gold Coast has lost more than $4.6bn and some eight million visitors. The city has had to work exceptionally hard to keep our tourism industry afloat,” she said.
“Our four executives bring over a century’s experience collectively in the destination marketing, aviation and business events space, which will help drive the momentum building as the city rebounds from Covid disruption.”
Mr Workman said it was critical to market the city to an audience with a pent-up demand for travel.
“Selling Gold Coast’s assets – which includes a wave of new products and experiences that holiday-makers have never seen before – will be our point of difference to slice through a competitive marketplace,” he said.
“We’re coming back online with more to offer than ever before and brand-new marketing activity and messaging to capture as many opportunities as possible.”
The Gold Coast has just one international airline service, with Scoot flying to and from Singapore thrice weekly.
Air New Zealand will re-establish its Auckland service in March. The airport, at its pre-Covid peak, was doing 420 flights a week.
The state government this month unveiled a $200m international aviation fund – stumping up $100m matched by four Queensland airports including the Gold Coast – to lure more flights and airlines back to Australia.
The money will be used to offer incentives for airlines to choose Queensland destinations for new connections.
'Make it sexy’: Big call on Gold Coast hospitality
The GOLD Coast has more hospitality businesses than pre-Covid - but one of the nation’s leading industry figures warns Australia must “make (it) sexy again” for it to boom.
More than 4500 food and beverage licences have been issued this financial year, significantly up on the 4126 from 2018-19, the last pre-Covid figures, council data shows.
But while encouraging, one of Australia’s top tourism bosses says more will need to be done to make the industry viable again and that means an image makeover.
Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond said the future of the Gold Coast’s biggest industry and the hospitality sector as a whole relied on making “it sexy again”.
“We have lost a whole generation of talent from the sector (during Covid) because, for many people, they saw no future and took their skills elsewhere,” she said.
“There is no silver bullet but in the long run there are training issues which must be addressed but what we really need to do is make people see what a great and sexy industry this is.
“There is a lot of discussion already happening about how we might improve things so that people will see it is a tremendous and fabulous industry to get back into.”
Ms Osmond said the return of international workers was a critical first step which would also help mitigate staffing issues.
But Surfers Paradise Licenced Venues Association president Tim Martin said the sector’s revival would be boosted by the lifting of remaining Covid restrictions as QR check-ins.
“I don’t know what they are waiting for,” he said.
“The supermarkets and Bunnings are just as busy as the licensed venues, so what is the difference?
“The government isn’t even using the contact tracing and I’ve never seen anyone check in to any shop or supermarket. It’s a waste of time.”
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last week announced all Covid restrictions would be reviewed by the end of the month.
Hallmark Hospitality director Matt Heanen, who runs Surfers Paradise nightspots Finn McCool’s, the Cavill Hotel and Retro’s, said the restrictions on hospitality during the pandemic had turned some entrepreneurs away from the industry.
“Unfortunately, there have been many hospitality businesses that haven’t been able to survive Covid and this would naturally result in people moving to new industries, which is a shame,” he said.
“Hopefully, now that things are looking brighter some will be able to return.”
He said like all businesses in hospitality, Hallmark Hospitality had been through tough periods during the pandemic but international tourism would make a major positive impact.
“We’ve been on a rollercoaster for the last two years with the ever-changing rules and restrictions, but we are still here. We have an excellent team who have stayed strong and positive and we’re now looking to the future.
“As the Gold Coast economy is driven by tourism, I believe every business here welcomes the return of international tourists. We expect to see more and more international customers over the coming weeks.”
Some of the Gold Coast’s largest tourism operators, including the Star Gold Coast, have struggled to hire new staff for hospitality work in the past 18 months.
Staffing issues, which began in mid-2020 came to a head in January when the Omicron outbreak forced many businesses to close their doors entirely while staff were sick or forced to isolate.
Mayor Tom Tate ran Surfer Paradise hotel The Islander for 25 years and urged incoming travellers to consider a career in hospitality while living the Gold Coast lifestyle.
“I look back on my days as both a publican and live music venue operator and remember those times as some of the best years of my life,” he said.
“People are largely out having fun, engaging with you and celebrating friendships and it’s a great environment to work in and gives you such a broad range of skills. Importantly. there’s opportunities across so many areas, from back-of-house to frontline services.
“I strongly believe the hospitality industry can set a person up for so many future career paths. My advice: do it.”
Of the Gold Coast’s major business and dining precincts, the only suburbs to see a decline in the number of active food licences was Broadbeach, which has declined from 201 in 2018-19 to 193 this year.
Council Lifestyle and Community Committee chairman Cr Hermann Vorster welcomed the numbers but said many business owners in his Varsity Lakes division were struggling.
“It is encouraging to see these numbers hold up but we know that it is not necessarily a barometer of success,” he said.
“There are many businesses which are living on the breadline and we need to make every effort to support them.
“I’ve been speaking with Varsity Lakes operators and I know the struggle is real and they are looking for greater support from government and with envious eyes for what has been offered in NSW.”
Study Gold Coast CEO Alfred Slogrove said his organisation hosted a jobs platform to find employment for students.
With thousands of overseas students set to begin flying in from Monday to study at the city’s universities, he said a career in hospitality had much to offer in the long run.
“It is a great opportunity for them to hone their finer skills, even if they are planning to do things like becoming a lawyer eventually.
“There has been a skills shortage that we are facing but it’s worth doing because it can give such a good foundation for life skills.”
THE BORDERS ARE OPEN: WHAT NOW?
THE Gold Coast is open to international visitors for the first time in nearly 700 days, but the milestone won’t lead to an immediate economic boost, with no foreign flights landing in the city on Monday.
Vaccinated tourists can enter Australia without quarantine requirements for the first time since 9pm on March 20, 2020.
None of the seven international flights due to land in Queensland on Monday will touch down at Coolangatta. But the Gold Coast will welcome three plane loads of visitors from Singapore each week. In early March a thrice-weekly shuttle service to Auckland begins.
Scoot Airlines launched its Singapore service last week, ahead of the official reopening.
But Queensland Airports boss Chris Mills has warned a return to pre-Covid international travel levels would likely take years.
“It will be a slow build, that’s for sure and we are realistic about it but we have to start somewhere and build from that,” he said.
“It will be a few years before international travel is fully rebuilt but if confidence continues to build, it will be sooner than that.”
A bullish Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said he was confident pre-Covid flight levels could be reached by Christmas.
“It will be the end of the year before we get to full capacity but the inquiry and booking numbers for our airlines are already very strong,” he said.
“There was an immediate spike on interest and bookings once the border announcement was made but we have to be realistic and understand international travel is not something you just decide on the day before – it takes time for the booking and for people to realise their ambitions to travel here.
“It will be extremely competitive in coming months because every destination on Earth is chasing that dollar right now so we have to be on the front foot and that will take time to rebuild, we have a strong product.”
The state government has unveiled a $200m international aviation fund – stumping up $100m matched by four Queensland airports including the Gold Coast – to lure more flights and airlines back to Australia.
The funds will be used to offer incentives for airlines to chose Queensland destinations over other locations for new connections.
Destination Gold Coast will focus its efforts on marketing the city and attract new flights from key Asia and Pacific markets including Singapore, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand
CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said the reopening marked an important milestone in re-establishing the Gold Coast tourism economy.
“Singapore is among our key markets so it was great to welcome Scoot back last week and Monday is another step forward as we strive to rebuild our international markets overall,” she said.
Ms O’Callaghan said the industry had been laying the groundwork for two years.
“From and international visitor point of view, the Gold Coast hasn’t rested on its laurels - in the last couple of years there’s been more than $1bn invested into the airport, new attractions at theme parks, City of Gold Coast’s HOTA and Kurrawa Beach Club trial to name a few.
“As we reunite with the world, all this gives them more reason to fall in love with the place.”
‘Very emotional’ reunions as international travellers arrive
February 14: Tears have flowed in the arrival lounge of Gold Coast Airport where the first non-New Zealand international flight has landed in nearly two years.
Emotions ran high as Lili Tan and John Gormley hugged for the first time in the nearly two years since Covid forced them apart.
The couple, who split their time between Australia and Thailand, had not seen each other since Mr Gormley caught one of the last flights home before borders closed in March 2020 to care for his elderly parents.
Mr Gormley, from Byron Bay, said their reunion was the perfect valentine’s gift.
“It’s been really hard, it’s been video conferencing twice a day,” he said with tears in his eyes
“It’s been so hard. It was only supposed to be one month (apart) but it’s been two years.
“I have old parents and I couldn’t leave Australia because I would not have been able to get back in.
“It’s Valentine’s Day today, it was her birthday yesterday. She flew on her birthday and I’ve got to give her is a lollipop.
“I was really nervous to see her again after all this time. I don’t know how she was going to feel seeing me again.
Ms Tan, from Singapore, said it had been a nervous flight.
“I couldn’t wait. It was impossible to sleep,” she said.
“It’s lucky we have had social media but it’s not the same.
“It’s very emotional.”
The couple plan to spend Valentine’s Day having breakfast together and walking on the beach “getting to know each other again.”
The Scoot flight landed at Gold Coast Airport just after 7am carrying less than 30 passengers.
The airline is planning to ramp up its Gold Coast flights incoming weeks.
It’s exciting times at #GoldCoast airport where the first international commercial flight in six months is about to land! Follow the action at @GCBulletinhttps://t.co/EuG8Cj1oSM@keenatGCBpic.twitter.com/su5p8xWSvb
— Andrew Potts (@GCS_Pottsy) February 13, 2022
Surfers Paradise retiree Charles Buttenshaw said it had been difficult to be separated from family for the past two years, having missed his daughter Rebecca’s wedding to her new husband Tristan.
Mr Buttenshaw said he would spend the day meeting his new son-in-law for the first time.
“They were married last year and it was hard to miss it but we managed to do a video conference so I didn’t fully miss out,” he said.
“I’m glad to be back so I am going to enjoy the good things about Australia.
“I am very dirty with the federal government for locking us out for two years and making our lives hell.
“We felt abandoned and on our own over there.”
Burleigh Heads resident Ejlal Almaktoun was the first passenger to enter the terminal after returning to Australia for the first time since December 2019.
She went overseas for a new job and became trapped in Singapore during the pandemic.
“I’m visiting with family and friends and I am glad to be back home again,” she said.
“It’s been a long two years and I wanted to get first flight back to the Gold Coast to see my family and friends. It will be great to be reunited with them.
“I will head to the beach straight away.”
Visit Gold Coast: Tourism industry welcomes new campaign for visitors
February 13: Overseas visitor love for the Gold Coast is strong but a major airline founder says the city must send a valentine to the world to re-establish itself as Australia’s tourism capital.
Scoot airline CEO Campbell Wilson flies in on Monday morning from Singapore aboard the first overseas flight to arrive at Gold Coast Airport in six months.
It will be the city’s first flight outside of the trans-Tasman bubble to land in two years, since March 23, 2020.
Mr Wilson, who co-founded Scoot in 2012, said while the city had a bright future, it needed to be on the front foot in a highly competitive market.
“Australia generally is a very attractive place to go and it has done a great job keeping people’s attention,” he said. “But (for the Gold Coast) there must be a destination rebuilding effort because they have not been actively advertising – like everyone else – in the past few years.
“Is the Gold Coast still known overseas? Yes. Is it still attractive? Yes, but now they need to grab people’s attention.”
Pre-Covid, Scoot was bringing 130,000 to 150,000 people annually to the Gold Coast.
The route this year is expected to deliver more than 52,000 seats into the Gold Coast.
Monday’s flight will have several dozen passengers but Mr Wilson said he was confident that passenger numbers would bounce back.
“These are unusual circumstances but we are committed to the market and we are reopening to the world but we do not know how long it will take to recover,” he said.”
Mr Wilson said he did not think Australia’s vaccine passport or remaining Covid restrictions would be a turn-off for tourists and described them as favourable compared to other markets.
In the lead up to the flight, a “Love Is in the Air” message was created in the sand of North Burleigh beach for Scoot passengers and the airline to see on arrival.
Queensland Airports CEO Chris Mills said Monday’s flight was an important first step ahead of Australia’s borders reopening on February 21.
“Many Australians have a real passion for international travel as well and this service will deliver easy, affordable access into Singapore and beyond – prompting many people to take another look at their bucket lists and start making overseas travel plans,” he said.
Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said advertising would begin in Singapore to coincide with the flights beginning.
“We are backing in Scoot’s Gold Coast flight schedule with our successful Queensland’s Good to Go campaign on Singaporean TV, digital and outdoor platforms,” he said.
It comes as one of the Gold Coast’s major accommodation providers is already gearing up for the return of tourists and marketing the city as a destination to the world.
Australia’s international borders will open to the world on February 21, though it is expected to take months for some of the major airlines to re-establish routes with southeast Queensland.
It will be longer before visitors from China and New Zealand – the Gold Coast’s two biggest pre-Covid markets – can return.
Despite the slow start, Star Gold Coast chief operating officer Jess Mellor said the recovery would eventually revive the city’s economy.
She said the fundamentals that “positioned the Gold Coast as a world-class tourism destination of choice pre-Covid” remained “firmly in place”.
“We are also buoyed by the most recent research from ACRI (Australia-China Relations Institute), which found the Chinese view Australia as the number one destination for education and number two as a travel destination behind only Japan,” she said.
“It showed the Chinese want to come here and Australians believe they are very important to the post-Covid recovery.”
The state government last week unveiled a $200m international aviation fund – stumping up $100m matched by four Queensland airports including the Gold Coast – to lure more flights and airlines back to Australia. It comes on top of a $5.2m marketing campaign to sell the state to the domestic market.
This includes offers of cut-price airfares and $199-a-night deals at Coast hotels.
‘Easy as possible’: Fight to stop Coast flopping in 2022
SOME of the Gold Coast’s biggest business and tourism bosses say entering Australia must be as easy as possible for a new wave of international tourists.
Two days out from the arrival on the Gold Coast of the first flight in two years to carry overseas visitors, excited operators have been warned the city will now fight for a smaller audience of travellers eligible to enter the country.
Monday’s Scoot Airlines flight from Singapore to the Gold Coast will come a week before Australia’s international borders reopen to all double vaccinated visitors on February 21.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa called for the state and federal governments to remove as much red tape as possible to make travelling around Australia a streamlined process for visitors.
“Once we reopen the international borders and prepare to welcome visitors back, we need to ensure they have a seamless travel experience,” he said.
“There are still some logistic challenges facing this welcome back process and we need to work through these so we can understand how these visitors will access their vaccination certificates to be able to easily experience the attractions on offer while they’re on the Gold Coast.
“As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to work with the government and follow their guidelines and processes, however we would encourage the government to make these as simple and easy as possible.”
Gold Coast business leaders, including Mayor Tom Tate have called for check-in apps to be dumped entirely, arguing they were an impediment to consumer confidence and a turn-off for local shoppers, diners and tourists.
National Retailers Association CEO Dominique Lamb said slashing red tape and rules was key to welcoming back tourists.
“The Gold Coast is a major international tourist attraction due its climate, beaches and location but it’s important that governments at all levels do not get complacent,” she said.
“To maintain its status as a holiday destination the Gold Coast needs as little red-tape as is necessary for international tourists to enter the region.
“We urge decision makers to work closely with the Gold Coast business community to ensure that the local economy reaps the maximum benefit from the international border reopening.”
Mr Randhawa said the post-Covid tourism market would be smaller and more competitive than the one faced by businesses two years ago.
“Given the vaccination travel requirements, these markets have shrunk. We can see from available data vaccination rates in some key inbound countries are only at around 60 per cent, therefore we don’t know how much of our market will not be eligible to travel as a result.
“Nonetheless it’s a great and positive step into opening Queensland to the world. Building confidence and providing a stable travel arrangement will be critical to its success.”
He backed incentivising travellers to come to Australia and specifically the Gold Coast through special offerings and promotions in the next 18 months.
Asked about the need to give foreigners as seamless experience as possible, given QR check-ins remain for hospitality, Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said: “Covid is a very fluid situation, but we support removing barriers when appropriate.”
Authorities are warning operators not to expect the floodgates to open immediately, saying visitor numbers will climb steadily as more air routes are reopened.
Re-establishing flights between the Gold Coast and Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan will be the initial focus of airline and tourism bosses before turning their attention to new destinations.
Tourism was worth $6bn to the Gold Coast economy in 2019. But two years of lockdowns and border closures wiped $5bn off it.
The Gold Coast attracted more than half of all international holiday visitors to Queensland in 2019, more than any other state destination.
It also attracted a million-plus international visitors annually pre-Covid.
NEW FLIGHTS FOR GOLD COAST AIRPORT
More than $200 million will be spent on securing more flights to the Gold Coast, in the biggest funding boost since Covid hit to ensure international tourism takes off.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is to make the announcement at a media conference at the Kirra Surf Lifesaving Club today.
The government would invest $100 million matched dollar-for dollar by the state’s largest four airports to secure flights and rebuild Queensland’s $6 billion international tourism industry.
“We know that more flights means more tourists. That’s why international aviation connectivity is absolutely critical to the economic recovery of Queensland’s tourism industry,” the Premier said.
“This is the largest investment of any Australian state or territory in securing inbound international flights after COVID-19.
“The agreement we’ve made this week will enable our airports to negotiate with airlines and fast track more direct flights into Queensland.
“I want to see more planes landing at our major airports — filled with tourists who want to
experience Queensland. That’s what this funding will help us achieve.”
Gold Coast Airport’s Chris Mills said the announcement would “really change the game”.
“It’s been a very tough couple of years for aviation and that’s why this news is so important,” he said.
“International tourism is such a key driver of the economy. Over a million international visitors used to come through the Gold Coast.
“We’ve been expanding our terminal facilities over the Covid period so we’re looking forward to, with the support of this fund, not only restoring the international network that existed previously but attracting new connections between the Gold Coast and the rest of the world.
“We really appreciate the fact the government has listened and consulted with the tourism and aviation industry.”
The announcement comes after multiple calls reported in the Bulletin for boosting the state’s existing international aviation attraction fund which sat at $10 million. Late last year NSW Government committed $60 million to international flights marketing which was matched by Sydney Airport.
Tourism was worth more than $6bn to the Gold Coast economy in 2019 but two years of lockdowns and border closures wiped $5 billion off it.
The Government earlier this week announced a $5.2 million marketing campaign describing it as “just a start” in rebuilding the shattered industry post-Covid.
The Great Queensland Getaway campaign, unveiled on Wednesday, features “once-in-a-lifetime” prizes, “outstanding” holiday deals including $1 breakfasts, heavily-discounted accommodation, cut-price airfares and $119-a-night accommodation deals.
The international border reopening is on February 21.
Premier Palaszczuk at today’s announcement thanked Queensland’s international airports for their commitment.
“This is another great example of the government working with the private sector to rebuild Queensland’s economy and create jobs,” she said.
The combined $200 million international aviation investment is predicted to deliver more than 5.3 million airline seats per year, generating almost $4 billion.
Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the partnership with Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns international airports would supercharge the commitment to helping Queensland tourism operators rebuild better.
“Our airport partnership will target the international flights suspended by the pandemic, as well as new overseas connections,” Mr Hinchliffe said.
“Attracting international aviation is extremely competitive and that’s why we’re on the runway early to secure Queensland’s place on the destination boards of the world’s biggest airports.”
Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said the announcement was a shot in the arm for tourism recovery.
“We know aviation attraction for new routes and services is the critical piece to recovery our
industry has been calling for and this support will give Gold Coast’s tourism sector another reason to smile with an exceptionally bright future ahead,” Ms O’Callaghan said.
Mayor Tom Tate has praised the Government for its massive financial boost for the aviation industry.
“More flights mean more tourists and a huge boost to our economy,’’ he said.
“The funds will enable airports to negotiate with international carriers in good faith. The Gold Coast is the jewel in the State’s tourism crown.
“Well done to the State, Marion Charlton (Chief Operating Officer), Chris Mills (CEO) and the team at Gold Coast Airport as well as Destination GC.’’
‘Mammoth’: Biggest problem facing Coast’s future
A Queensland tourism heavyweight says a new $5.2m marketing campaign is “just a start” in rebuilding the shattered industry post-Covid.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s ‘Great Queensland Getaway’ campaign, unveiled on Wednesday, will feature “once-in-a-lifetime” prizes, “outstanding” holiday deals including $1 breakfasts, heavily-discounted accommodation, cut-price airfares and $119-a-night accommodation deals at Gold Coast hotels.
It coincides with the international borders opening on February 21.
The government says it and the already-running “Days Like This” campaign targeting domestic hot spots will deliver $4bn in overnight visitor expenditure statewide.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said the cheap Gold Coast hotel rooms would help overcome travel hesitancy.
“We still need to build up momentum in domestic tourism because after two years of drama, it will take us a while to turnaround the message of doom and gloom and telling people not to travel,” he said.
“Tourism is going to be a competitive space and every destination wants those domestic visitors so we have to be on the front foot.
“It will take a mammoth effort to get everything going again domestically as well as internationally because we are now lined-up with every other destination to attract visitors.”
The new campaign is a partnership between Tourism and Events Queensland and operators such as Virgin Australia, Webjet, accommodation giant Accor, holiday-booking companies MyQueensland and Helloworld to entice visitors back to the Sunshine State as it recovers from Covid.
The deals include $2000 in holiday bonuses and $1 breakfasts on the Fraser Coast.
“Aussies are already being inspired by our Days Like This aspirational campaign and they will be compelled to lock in their travel plans through the Great Queensland Getaway launching this Sunday – where airfares and holiday packages will be on sale,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“And, internationally, our successful Good to Go message will be extended as two-way travel continues to open up.”
While the government has committed to the new campaign, it has not revealed if it will pump in money to lure airlines and international visitors.
NSW has tipped in $120m for flights to Sydney Airport for two years, while Western Australia committed $65m for routes into Perth for the same time frame.
By comparison, Queensland has pledged $10m to be split between four airports – Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Cairns.
Tourism was worth more than $6bn to the Gold Coast economy in 2019.
But two years of lockdowns and border closures wiped $5bn off it.
The Gold Coast attracted more than half of all international holiday visitors to Queensland in 2019, more than any other state destination.
It also attracted a million-plus international visitors annually pre-Covid.
Tourism and Events Queensland chief executive Leanne Coddington said it was “exciting” to be returning to national and international marketing.
“We know as people emerge from this latest outbreak they want to feel good – and to do so they will value safety, simplicity and memorable moments with friends, family and the natural environment,” she said.
“These campaigns give them the inspiration to do that in Queensland, as competition from other destinations begins to ramp up.”
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