Stark figures reveal devastating impact of the coronavirus on Gold Coast tourism industry

Figures released today have shown the scale of the problem facing the Gold Coast’s tourism industry following the coronavirus outbreak.

STARK figures released by Labor’s Deputy Leader Richard Marles today have revealed a 40 per cent decrease in international visitors to the Gold Coast since the start of the coronavirus outbreak – equating to 400,0000 people.

Mr Marles and Gold Coast-based based Senator Murray Watt were in Surfers Paradise this afternoon demanding the Federal Government take immediate action to help the Gold Coast’s suffering tourism industry.

Senator Murray Watt. Picture: Kym Smith.

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Mr Marles said he’d heard some “pretty confronting” stories from Gold Coast hoteliers, with some reporting occupancy rates dropped to single digits overnight.

He said the lack of visitors to the city was having an “enormous impact” on a wide range of operators, particularly small-to-medium business operators and the city’s casual workforce.

Mr Marles said it was one thing to hear statistics and figures about how the Gold Coast’s tourism industry was being impacted but “another to be present in a place and hear the very difficult stories that people have to tell”.

“This is real, it’s not just statistics, it’s happening to real people and it’s going to play out for some time to come,” he said.

“This is not just something that’s present for the next week or two, the Federal Government needs to bear in mind that whatever response it comes up with it has to contemplate that it needs to keep the tourism sector going in order to get past the impact the coronavirus will have.”

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles.

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Mr Watt said there were more than five million international and national visitors to the Gold Coast region just last year, spending a combined 26 million nights in the area and pumping more than $5 billion into the economy.

He said he’d heard “worrying” stories from struggling operators and had met with representatives from Gold Coast hotel operators and organisations to get a better understanding of the effect of coronavirus on the local economy.

Mr Watt said the Federal Government need to “really step up to the plate” with the Queensland Government already taking action with some extra funding to promote tourism to domestic travellers.