Gold Coast tourism heavies back schoolies celebrations as business leaders want it booted

CALLS to scrap the annual Schoolies celebrations have been slammed by the head of Gold Coast tourism despite claims the end of year party tarnished the city’s reputation.

CALLS to scrap the annual Schoolies celebrations have been slammed by the head of Gold Coast Tourism despite claims the end-of-year party tarnished the city’s reputation.

Each year in November up to 30,000 graduates visit the Gold Coast from around Australia where they are said to inject up to $48 million into the local economy.

Schoolies 2016 on the Gold Coast

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Gold Coast Tourism chairman Paul Donovan said business people and tourism operators should not be critical of the rite of passage.

Victorian Schoolies flock to Surfers Paradise to celebrate high school graduation. A woman is taken into police custody. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

He said it would be impossible to stop school leavers coming to the Glitter Strip.

“If you don’t have Schoolies they’ll still come to the Gold Coast,” Mr Donovan said.

“Look at what happens in Bali and places like that. It’s a tradition.”

As it stands there is a government-run party precinct, additional emergency services and support from the Red Frogs Christian volunteer group to help keep the party under control.

“Why would you knock it? The kids are protected in the precinct,” Mr Donovan said.

“Everyone knocks Schoolies (but) the kids have plenty of money, they stay at the accommodation, they eat and go to the theme parks.”

He said operators needed to market themselves to schoolies during the two-week celebration which some say turns families away from the Gold Coast during the peak summer season.

Mr Donovan said safety for the hordes of school leavers was paramount and one area that should be tightened ahead of this year’s event were regulations surrounding electric hire scooters.

Schoolies flock to Surfers Paradise to celebrate high school graduation. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones said Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast were an institution which had become a lot safer over the past decade. “It’s about how do we turn the exposure Schoolies has for the Gold Coast into long-term visitors choosing to come back,” Ms Jones said.

“For a lot of young people it will be their first visit so if they have a positive experience they will think of it as a place they will want to come back to and visit when they have their own families.”

Schoolies riding hire scooters are fined for beeping their horns. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It comes as Wyndham Cruises general manager Dean Griffin told the Bulletin the celebrations should be dumped.

“I think we need to be portraying the right images and this certainly doesn’t happen when Schoolies is on,” he said.

“A big thing for me, being in a tourist operation, is fewer people visit Surfers Paradise during this festival – especially young families, and young families are good yielding tourists. My past experience of Schoolies is the only traders who do well are fast food outlets and bottle shops.”

Commercial developer Tom Ray was equally damning and suggested both Schoolies and the Gold Coast 600 V8s event should get the boot.

In the Bulletin in May he asked: “Do images of these two things, portrayed into people’s loungerooms and on their social media, project the image of the Gold Coast that we should be seeing?”