When international students will return and why Coast is to boom
The Gold Coast’s $1.7 billion education sector is bracing itself for a rebound, with a new marketing campaign being finalised.
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The Gold Coast’s $1.7 billion education sector is bracing for a rebound, with a new marketing campaign being finalised before international students’ predicted return early in the New Year.
Study Gold Coast, in a briefing to city councillors, says the city is ready for the turnaround after Covid 2021 continued to shut borders to international students throughout this year.
The Gold Coast has 13,000 international students, down from 17,000 in June, latest figures provided in the briefing show. The city had more than 19,000 before Covid.
Study Gold Coast chair Rob Borbidge told councillors: “We anticipate we will have students arriving early next year.
“We do have a complication and it remains the fact that international students will be able to enter Australia through Sydney and Melbourne, and I think most likely Adelaide without the need to quarantine for a two-week period.
“As opposed to the current state government requirement here in Queensland. That is obviously a complication we could do without but we will deal with it as best we can.”
But Mr Borbidge outlined a range of initiatives which placed the Coast “in a strong position for the rebound”.
“This includes initiatives like the Reuniting Paradise campaign that will commence in 2022 through a partnership with Destination Gold Coast, Study Gold Coast, Tourism and Events Queensland and Rex Airlines,” he said.
“Hundreds of families, friends and relatives of students will be able to access cheap flights and recreational funding or play money to holiday here on the Gold Coast early next year.”
Study Gold Coast CEO Alfred Slogrove, in his presentation to councillors, outlined how the city was still retaining numbers with the sector making strong gains on the domestic front.
“The economics of it are particularly difficult to track at the moment because we have a cohort of students who are offshore, as well a cohort of students who are onshore and a cohort that are in limbo,” he said.
“They have enrolled, they haven’t commenced, they are waiting for the borders to open.
It’s skewing the numbers just slightly.
“However, the data that is shown here says the sector on the Gold Coast is maintaining $1.7 billion of economic impact. That is to do with the increasing number of domestic enrolments – that 11 per cent spike in enrolments we saw in the latter half of the financial year has really made an impact.”
Mr Slogrove estimated almost 10,000 people had attended the Gold Coast Careers Festival which attracted 57 exhibitors, and predicted next year’s would be bigger.
Study Gold Coast had undertaken four major marketing campaigns with an audience reach of 7.5 million.
“The sentiment has been extremely positive all over the world for those campaigns,” Mr Slogrove said.
Feedback to SGC suggests India, Sri Lanka, South America, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are “priority” targets and talks with educators showed “Chinese students still want to come here”.
“We are just putting the finishing touches on a massive campaign that’s going to go out in the New Year when the borders open. It’s called It’s Your Moment — so it will be really exciting times for us,” Mr Slogrove said.
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