Experience Gold Coast CEO John Warn’s ambitious plan to transform city into world’s lifestyle capital
The Gold Coast will be transformed into the “lifestyle capital of the world” under a bold plan to supercharge the economy and the city’s biggest sector. FIND OUT HOW
Future Gold Coast
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The Gold Coast’s new tourism boss says he wants the city to become the “lifestyle capital of the world”.
John Warn began his tenure as CEO of Experience Gold Coast on Friday morning and just hours later laid out his vision of the city’s future.
Mr Warn, speaking at the Bulletin’s Future Gold Coast luncheon at Sea World, said the city was full of potential and could become one of the world’s leading destinations.
“There is no reason why we cannot be the lifestyle capital of Australia and globally too. When you think about why you live here, it’s largely lifestyle reasons,” he said.
“If you work in education, tourism, hospitality and culture, the reasons why people like living here are all around lifestyle.
“That’s the huge advantage we have.”
Mr Warn was appointed to the post of the new tourism and marketing body in August and wrapped up a long stint as the Pacific chief operating officer of hotel giant Accor on Thursday.
Experience Gold Coast was created from the merger of Destination Gold Coast, Major Events Gold Coast, Study Gold Coast, Placemakers and HOTA after council CEO Tim Baker found it could save ratepayers $7m.
In February, council resolved to amalgamate the functions delivered by those groups.
Mr Warn said the decision to amalgamate those entities was a smart move for the Gold Coast as it moved to dramatically ramp up its tourism sector in the post-Covid world.
“The City of Gold Coast had a choice, take it is easy and stay where we were with five entities doing great work, but it looked forward, be much bolder, have a bigger vision and have the courage to make a big decision,” he said.
“It brought together five amazing organisations into one group which meant we could be united for the Gold Coast because it is all about reimagining the future.
“The statistics (Future Gold Coast keynote speaker Mark McCrindle) shared are a little bit daunting but it allows us to build one vision with our board building up to visitor economy, which is now worth $7.7bn.
“When you think about a city that will have one million people living here (by 2046) there is no reason why we cannot be one of the great global cities of the future.”
Mr Warn is the city’s third tourism boss in the past five years.
Former Destination Gold Coast boss Annaliese Battista exited the organisation in late 2020 while her successor, Patricia O’Callaghan, resigned in late 2022 to take up the post of Tourism and Events Queensland CEO.
No permanent replacement was named for her while the council moved to amalgamate the five entities.
Mr Warn has been given a mandate by city leaders to fire up the sector, which was put on ice during Covid when international and domestic borders were closed in early 2020.
It has since bounced back from Covid, pumping $7.7 billion into the economy in the 2022-23 financial year, significantly above 2019 levels.
But the overall number of visitors and how long they stay in the city remains stubbornly below pre-Covid levels.
More than 12.6m visitors came to the Gold Coast in the 2022-23 financial year, up 33 per cent on the previous year but down 10.9 per cent on 2019.
Those visitors, according to Experience Gold Coast figures, stayed 22.4 million nights, up 77.5 per cent on 2021-22 numbers but down 14 per cent on 2019.
International visitor numbers are recovering slower than domestic tourism.
However more than 507,000 tourists did still travel to the city from New Zealand, the UK, USA, Japan, and Korea.
Mr Warn said he was looking forward to having “many cups of coffee” with staff and other key players around the Gold Coast in coming weeks and months and work closely with the council to develop the city’s next steps.
“The huge advantage we have is that we have a forward-looking council,” he said.
“It’s about ambition and how big a city we want to be?
“The perception has changed a lot since Covid.”
2026 GAMES FUTURE REVEALED
Commonwealth Games bosses have asked the city for more information about its ambitious bid to host the 2026 Games.
The proposal to rescue the event, which was abandoned by Victoria in July, has been put to the Commonwealth Games Federation as it meets in Singapore.
Mayor Tom Tate told a packed crowd at the Future Gold Coast forum at Sea World that the bid remained alive.
“The first hurdle is really with the Commonwealth Games Federation and they just concluded the meeting in Singapore and the word back to me is that they require more information,” he said.
“I’m throwing it out there that we can do it and we don’t have to build any infrastructure and that I’m determined that it’s not going to cost ratepayers any money.
“We’ll be on the world stage and what we did last time, Queen’s Baton Relay and festival and promotion, I think it would work. “
Mr Tate was grilled about his position on the council rejoining a body of southeast Queensland cities and regions despite the Gold Coast missing out on a desperately needed share of $285m last month – the latest tranche of funding issued from a state and federal government City Deal plan.
Fury has grown among city leaders that the Coast’s lack of membership in the powerful southeast Queensland Council of Mayors (COMSEQ) is costing it tens of millions of dollars after the federal and state governments announced a major funding package for southeast Queensland councils.
Deputy Mayor Donna Gates spoke at last year’s Future Gold Coast lunch and backed the push to rejoin the organisation.
However Mr Tate reiterated he was confident his own abilities to negotiate outweighed the $350,000 annual fee to be a member of COMSEQ.
“I can look anyone in the eyes and go, we did pretty good in that department,” he said.
“The continuation of light rail Stage 3 is still going nicely while Stage 4 is still on the priority list infrastructure list, that’s four billion.
“My math says $4bn and that’s a shitload of money.
“I’ve got us billions and they’ve got that $285m to share among themselves and so it’s not a good record.
“I say to the people going, ‘well you should look at joining the council of mayors’, I would if it’s beneficial to the Gold Coast.
“I’m not trying to be arrogant, but the things that we achieve instead of paying $350,000, they should pay us $350,000 and we’ll help them get some more money”.
Mr Tate has previously said the decision will be reviewed again after the March election.
COAST’S MOST PRESSING ISSUE
The Gold Coast must balance its lifestyle with the need to grow, leading social researching Mark McCrindle has cautioned.
Mr McCrindle used his keynote address at Friday’s Future Gold Coast luncheon to analyse how the city will change and expand dramatically in the next two decades, when the population reaches one million people.
According to his research:
* The city’s population will increase by 354,000 people, or 54 per cent in that period, well above the state average, while the northern suburbs will increase 65 per cent.
* The median age of Gold Coasters will remain at 39 years thanks to an influx of younger people and families to the city, which has a disproportionately older existing population.
* The city’s northernmost suburbs will have a population of 495,000 people by 2046.
* The fastest-growing industries locally in the past five years are healthcare, which has grown by 52 per cent, and professional services, up 29 per cent.
Mr McCrindle said the Gold Coast needed to be a city which would appeal to younger people.
“Generation Alpha is the first to be born in the 21 century and they are looking for a city which is adaptive and responsive to their needs that has high tech opportunities connected with small business, transport options and affordability,” he said
“Amid this significant growth we cannot let the demand overrun the supply and make sure we build that infrastructure for the growth which is coming.
“Otherwise we become a victim of our own success. Sydney and Melbourne are experiencing this which is why they have declining populations.
“We need to be able to live, work play, and shop locally.”
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