Indian Premier League: Gold Coast push to host games and Bollywood productions
Bollywood productions and the IPL are in the crosshairs of civic and tourism leaders who reveal why India is the key to the Gold Coast’s economic future. FULL STORY
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Gold Coast leaders are planning a charm offensive to India so it makes the Gold Coast a destination of choice and to bring Bollywood and the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the city.
Re-elected Mayor Tom Tate and the city’s new mega entity Experience Gold Coast (ECG) are in the early stages of mapping out the first mayoral mission of his new term – and India is the destination.
Tourists from India are already worth more than $27m to the Gold Coast economy.
Mr Tate wants to bring Bollywood productions to the new film studio council is pushing to get built at Yatala as well as bring a leg of the hugely-popular IPL to Carrara Stadium.
“There will be a mayoral mission in India early on in this term to establish the contacts, especially growing the film industry and there are so many trade opportunities between our two countries,” he said.
“India’s film industry is very strong and the storyline I would like to see is some Indian students come here to work, fall in love with an Aussie girl and there’s all the drama there but it shows all the footage of the Gold Coast in the cinemas in India.
“Off the cuff, we could have a pappadum-making competition and turn it into an ad.
“Those style of ads really sell the location.”
Mr Tate said he hoped to recruit a prominent ex-cricketer such as fast-bowler Brett Lee who is a prominent media figure in India.
“They love him, he’s been in the movies there, he looks great and could come out of the surf.”
It comes as Southern Cross University this week announced it would offer scholarships of up to $8000 to Indian students in fields of engineering, nursing, computing, education and social work as part of its ongoing bid to ramp up its overseas student numbers post-Covid.
Experience Gold Coast CEO John Warn said India was an “exciting emerging nation”.
“As Australia’s fastest-growing education market, India is a particular focus for us, as are the emerging student markets like the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand,” he said.
“India visitation has so far recovered by almost 45 per cent against pre-pandemic levels, so, to put that into perspective, we welcomed 36,000 Indian visitors who contributed more than $27m to our visitor economy in 2019.
“We continue to work closely in partnership with our airports to unlock new services through aviation hubs that would allow travel into the Gold Coast from other parts of Asia, India, and Europe.
“It is our intention to be in India in 2024 to ensure the Gold Coast presence and opportunity is well understood.”
New National and International Visitor Survey data compiled by Tourism Research Australia shows the domestic market is outperforming all expectations, with room for more growth.
However, the pumping domestic market comes despite the slow recovery of international travellers since borders reopened in February 2022.
Global events, including inflation and a highly competitive market have been blamed for the slow numbers, with 612,000 international visitors arriving in 2023, around 57 per cent of pre-Covid numbers.
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