Future Gold Coast: Japanese tourist revival boosting city’s economy

New data has revealed the Coast has a secret weapon which will boost its tourism figures. It could be worth billions to the Gold Coast’s economy.

JAPANESE tourists helped make the Gold Coast into one of the world’s hottest tourist destinations in the 1980s and now they’re going to do it again.

New data has revealed a surge in visitors from Japan and New Zealand as the Chinese market, which has sustained the city for a decade, cools.

Tourism bosses say they are set to kick off a new strategy which will see increased focus on securing cashed-up individual travellers rather than tour groups.

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German tourists Julian Sipos, 24, and Hannah Dollriess, 22, walking along Surfers Paradise beach. Picture: Jerad Williams

“We are seeing significant growth in international markets like Japan,” Destination Gold Coast boss Annaliese Battista said.

“What we are seeing out of Japan is the first signs of a reignition of Japan’s interest at the Gold Coast for the first time in many years.

“We are actively targeting this market because we think there is room for growth which could be sustained over a long time.”

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Gold Coast Tourism CEO Annaliese Battista Picture: Glenn Hampson

Japan was the Gold Coast’s biggest source of international tourists through the late 1980s and 1990s, sparking a major development boom which saw resorts and golf courses built to cater to the market.

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But the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s saw the market collapse.

Ms Battista, who took over as head of the Coast’s peak tourism body late last year, said a surprise area of growth from international tourists was coming from New Zealand as our Kiwi neighbours rediscovered the city.

“There is more demand for flights inbound from New Zealand than we can handle at present,” she said.

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In the 1980s and 1990s the Japanese market was massive on the Gold Coast.

“New Zealand was once deemed a saturated market but we saw a nine per cent growth to 210,000 visitors in the past year.

“It is not unforeseeable that it will take over from China as our biggest market.”

New tourism data released in June revealed a record spend from overseas visitors, bringing more than $1.4 billion into the economy.

But experienced Gold Coast tourism industry operators questioned the figures, saying they had not seeing any boom at the coalface.

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More than $1.4 billion was spent by tourists on the Gold Coast in 2018-19 Picture: Destination Gold Coast

Instead, they say many businesses are struggling in the face of an increasingly competitive environment and a significant decline in Chinese tourists.

The International Visitor Survey data revealed:

* 1 million tourists spent $1.4 billion on the Gold Coast in the year ended March 2019 — a 3.8 per cent growth in expenditure year-on-year.

* Visitor arrivals declined 2.1 per cent, with a 17 per cent fall in Chinese visitors.

* Kiwi tourists jumped 9 per cent.

* Queensland’s total visitor expenditure was up 8.6 per cent year-on-year.

Ms Battista said despite this, the Gold Coast had experienced record growth in the previous year, with visitation up 15 per cent to 13 million people, while spending grew 18 per cent to $5.7 billion.

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Visitation to the Cosat grew 15 per cent last year. Picture: Destination Gold Coast

“Obviously different service providers have different experiences and different peak periods,” she said.

“I spoke to one recently who said that during a collaborative campaign we led bookings were at record levels for six weeks but were much lower on either side and were disappointed by the result.

“It is the case that not everyone will see equal benefit from marketing campaigns and that is the nature of a competitive environment.”

According to the data, spending by overseas visitors jumped 6 per cent year-on-year to an average of $1323 per trip.

Chinese Tourist numbers fell this past year. Pictures Adam Head

Despite the fall in Chinese tourists, they remained the city’s biggest market, with 251,000 coming to the Coast in the year ending March.

Tourism industry figures across the city reacted with scepticism to the June figures, with many telling the Bulletin they had seen little if any economic uplift in the year since the Games.

One industry leader said much of the spend was generated by Chinese visitors on pre-booked group tours that visit preset specific locations.

But Ms Battista said there had been a concerted effort away from marketing to group tours.

“We have made a deliberate move away from tours towards free and independent travellers and what we saw in the 12 months to March 2019 was evident that his was working,” she said.

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The Gold Coast remains a popular destination. Photo: Jerad Williams

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“While tourism visitation from China was down, spend was actually up 19 per cent, so there were fewer people but they were spending more.”

While there is a renewed focus on the international market, the bulk of the Gold Coast’s visitor numbers come from within Australia.

Australian tourists make up 92 per cent of the audience, while international visitors are only around eight per cent of the total.

However, the international visitors spend significantly more, chalking up 25 per cent of spending.

Ms Battista said Destination Gold Coast would continue to pitch to the domestic market.

“There are areas which we think are prime for growth — the domestic fly market but also those from Brisbane,” she said.

“It is where we are very competitive and by offering a compelling holiday experience and finding ways of telling a different story about the Coast who think they have been there and done that.”