Gold Coast leaders say the city’s lifeblood tourism industry has ‘bounced back’ after devastating Christmas storms

A year ago the Gold Coast’s lifeblood tourism sector had its bumper festive summer wiped out by storms. Leaders give their verdict on how the bounce back is looking for 2025.

Gold Coast leaders say the city’s lifeblood tourism industry has “bounced back” and is primed for summer crowds a year on from devastating Christmas storms which smashed last year’s festive period.

The extreme weather event saw cyclonic winds of up to 160km/h and a fast-moving line of thunderstorms smash through northern parts of the Gold Coast, leaving homes and businesses destroyed.

It included huge damage to theme parks including Dreamworld and attractions like Top Golf which had to shut for an extended period.

Damage to Top Golf Gold Coast caused by the Christmas Day storm. Picture: Charlton Hart.

Since, Dreamworld has recovered and just this week launched its new $55 million Rivertown precinct - featuring two new thrill rides and a new corporate restaurant area - whilst Village Roadshow Theme Parks has unveiled its new $100m Wizard of Oz themed precinct.

Experience Gold Coast’s head of visitor economy and corporate relations Rachel Hancock said the storm destruction was “devastating” for local operators and the city’s tourism industry – but local businesses had reported higher demand for this coming holiday season.

“The Christmas New Year period is our busiest time of the year and operators really rely on that, so to be hit by those storms at that crucial time was devastating for our industry,” she said.

First look inside the Wizard of Oz precinct at Warner Bros Movie World ahead of its opening on Friday. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“We’ve got really great bookings coming through particularly from interstate. We’re up on last year so there is a real buzz around the industry and we hope to see those numbers climb.”

Earlier in the year, Experience Gold Coast and City of Gold Coast in partnership with the state government, pledged a $2.5 million business recovery stimulus.

The recovery program saw an injection of $7.2 million straight into the local economy.

Ms Hancock said the incentive helped an array of businesses across the region – some of which have only just reopened a year on.

“Top Golf had no trading for a couple of months, the Canyon Flyer is only just operating again a year later because of the massive clean up effort and the Big4 Caravan Park in Helensvale is still cleaning up to this day,” she said.

“We know cost of living has been tough, but people aren’t shying away from holidays – so sentiment is really strong.”

Chief Operating Officer Village Roadshow Theme Parks, Bikash Randhawa. For story on planned protests which are to occurred out the front of Sea World on Saturday. Picture: Jerad Williams

Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said after a “shaky start” to the year, Topgolf was expecting a strong holiday period.

“After a shaky start to the year with a closure for over two months due to the devastating Christmas storms, we have been incredibly buoyed by our visitation numbers to Topgolf this year,” he said.

“We also launched the new Toptracer technology including virtual games to the venue in September which have been very popular with our guests.”

Mr Randhawa said Topgolf along with Village Roadshow Theme Parks were looking forward to welcoming interstate visitors while preparing for a “bumper peak season”.