Future Gold Coast: Why city needs an events and tourism masterplan

Business, theme park and political leaders say the Gold Coast needs to do something drastic in order to succeed after warning it is current “leaving money on the table”.

THE Gold Coast needs a tourism and events masterplan so it maximises its potential for attracting tourists.

That’s the message from business, theme park and political leaders who say the city is leaving money on the table by continuing to stage multiple major events on the same weekends.

Frustration with the events calendar has grown after late October’s GC500 weekend, which ran simultaneously with Halloween and Groundwater Country Music Festival.

While this was in part due to some of the events being rescheduled, it is not the first time it has occurred.

Chief Operating Officer Village Roadshow Theme Parks, Bikash Randhawa, Picture: Jerad Williams

Now, calls are growing to develop an all-in masterplan to ensure there are no further missed opportunities.

Village Roadshow chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said a co-ordinated events masterplan would ensure no double-ups and deliver significant long-term dividends.

“We need to come together as a city in a co-ordinated approach and map out a calendar of events to suit all different market types across the sports, arts, corporate and entertainment industries,” he said.

“Through this targeted, spread out calendar of events, we can ensure we extract the maximum value for the city to hopefully provide positive experiences for all operators.

Socials photo gallery of GC500 Saturday attendees and crowd shots. Pic Mike Batterham

“We have a great suite of assets across the city from our world-class theme parks to golden sand beaches and beautiful hinterlands but we need to continue to mine the city for more gold to remain as Australia’s premier tourist destination.”

Operators have told the Bulletin that the Halloween weekend is typically a bumper one for them in hospitality and it was cannibalised this year by having GC500 on at the same time.

The events sector was worth more than half a billion dollars annually pre-Covid and is rapidly rebuilding.

The Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre now has a pipeline of bookings through until 2030.

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates. Picture Glenn Hampson

Deputy mayor Donna Gates, speaking at the Bulletin’s Future Gold Coast roundtable, said event clashes “didn’t make sense” and hurt the city.

“We have tried so hard at council. It’s been one of our really big pushes that we need to have a calendar of events and it was part of the reason for Major Events GC so we didn’t have Broadbeach Alliance and Surfers Paradise Alliance fighting with each other and drawing people from precincts with crossover,” she said.

“We saw a fine example on the weekend … with Groundwater at times where the crowd was fairly limited and only picked up when GC500 ended.

“It’s a lesson we knew to avoid but I understand because of Covid there were bookings made for artists that could not be changed and the GC500 date was changed so that caused the clash.

“We need to have events every weekend on the Gold Coast to keep attracting people here … and certainly don’t need to compete – with the dollars available – to promote different events in different locations so close between Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise. It’s just stupid.”

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