Gold Coast tourism leaders eye China, Japan flight routes revival of international travel links

Gold Coast tourism leaders want to revive lucrative air routes with key Asian nations in a bid to finally put the city back on top with visitors. VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE DESTINATION

Gold Coast tourism leaders want to revive lucrative air routes with key Asian nations including China and Japan in a bid to finally put the city back on top with visitors.

Experience Gold Coast (EGC) will lead a trade mission to China later this year to continue wooing the city’s biggest pre-Covid tourist market, while work is now being done to sell Australia’s fastest-growing region to Japan, Singapore and India.

Queensland Airports CEO Amelia Evans will be part of the mission along with EGC CEO John Warn. She said restoring international visitation to pre-Covid levels and expanding it beyond meant more routes were needed.

“John (Warn) and I are going to China in September and we’re doing a CEO delegation to make sure we go and tell (our) narrative and there will be more of that in the future as we look at different markets,” Ms Evans said.

“(We will) put our energy into other future markets that we want to get back such as Japan or Singapore.

“While we want Chinese traffic back to the Gold Coast for all the reasons we know, we want to make sure we also don’t take our eye off the ball on future emerging markets and those include places like Indonesia and India.

Queensland Airports CEO Amelia Evans

“Some of that will be domestic (travel), not international for us as an airport, but certainly as a city, those markets are absolutely emerging.”

More than 275,000 visitors from China travelled to the city in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, a number which plummeted by more than 90 per cent in early 2020 when the coronavirus began rapidly spreading around the globe.

At the time the Gold Coast’s top five international markets were China, New Zealand at 210,000, Japan at 70,000, the United Kingdom and the United States at a record 45,000.

Ms Evans, who will appear at this week’s Future Gold Coast event, said portraying the city’s surging economy as well as the famed sun, sand and surf would bring more people flying into the region.

She said the Gold Coast’s success in education, health, manufacturing and cutting-edge research all served as catalysts for greater traffic in and out of the city and would help lead to even greater visitation, as well as sporting events.

Artist impression of the Gold Coast Airport masterplan, which features new hotels, a light rail connection and retail precinct. Picture: Supplied

“It does depend on who you are targeting and it depends on what we think they want, not what we know they want so that’s what’s been I think part of the challenge,” she said.

“There’s a lot of assumptions about what people want, but that’s not probably not necessarily what they do want.

“Events like the Gold Coast Marathon and the cricket which is being played here at the end of the year is going to drive a huge amount (of travel) for the Gold Coast domestically as an airport and that is the sort of thing we need.”

The Gold Coast will host a T20 International between Australia and India at Carrara’s People First Stadium on November 6.

The Gold Coast game is likely to deliver a boost to the economy, with tourists from India already worth more than $27m to the city.

Daniel Gschwind. Photograph David Kelly

Former Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind, now a professor at Griffith University’s Institute for Tourism, said it was critical the Gold Coast “continue to deliver what its reputation and marketing promises, if it wants to succeed”.

“Tourism infrastructure, including accommodation, restaurants, retail outlets and attractions has to match in quality and delivery what our visitors expect, and not just the standout, luxury offerings, but across all price segments we must ensure that visitors leave with memories that generate that word-of-mouth promotion for the destination,” he said.

“With a view on the opportunities of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, there is much talk of new attractions and experiences.

“I am confident that we have the tourism entrepreneurs to come up with the ideas, but we also need governments at all levels to provide the sensible regulatory framework and support that allows such opportunities to be realised.”

Tourism leaders are split over the issue of the Gold Coast’s accommodation offerings and whether they are too expensive.

Experience Gold Coast CEO John Warn

The Gold Coast has the second-highest nightly hotel rate for any city in Australia and, with international visitation numbers still below pre-Covid levels, former Gold Coast Tourism chairman Paul Donovan last week called for change.

“Domestically, tourism is going exceptionally well, the numbers are there but the only thing I’d say is the hotel rates are too expensive,” he said.

However Mr Warn and others including former Tourism Australia boss Bob East insisted the Gold Coast was in line with other cities.

Ms Evans said it was critical to have a diversity of offerings.

“We have a lot of accommodation on the Gold Coast but I think the answer is that it needs to be diverse,” she said.

“We don’t want families coming up and not being able to stay at hotels because they’re too expensive.

“So, we need to get the diversification right.”