Destination Gold Coast bosses see the M1 as biggest opportunity and risk to tourism
The oft-gridlocked M1’s bad reputation is the Gold Coast’s biggest risk when it comes to tourism, city tourism bosses say.
Golden Age
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THE number one priority for the Gold Coast to unlock its tourism potential is not a shiny, new attraction — it is fixing the oft-gridlocked M1.
That is the view of the city’s tourism bosses who also see the oft-clogged highway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast as the biggest threat to growing tourism numbers.
Destination Gold Coast Martin Winter last year told the Bulletin if not fixed within just a few years it would start impacting visitation.
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Now Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan, outlining priorities identified by his team to boost the city tourism economy after the Commonwealth Games, has the M1 on top of the list.
Destination Gold Coast has a top 10 list to be considered for inclusion as the Gold Coast Destinational Tourism management plan is reviewed. The plan, in partnership with City of Gold Coast, identifies the industry’s long-term objectives.
At the top of Destination Gold Coast’s top 10 is “Motorway: Continued upgrade of M1 as a critical pipeline between Gold Coast Airport and Brisbane Airport.”
Mr Donovan said the M1’s reputation for frequent gridlock was the biggest risk to the city’s $5b tourism industry.
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“The most important thing in regard to tourism is the M1. That is enabling people who want to get here now to get here easily when our biggest market is southeast Queensland.
“We need the Gold Coast to be more accessible,” Mr Donovan said.
“This is our biggest risk. People will still come but there is so much discussion about the M1 that it may turn people off — so that is big.”
Back in October last year, at the Gold Coast Bulletin’s Going for Gold symposium ahead of the Games, Mr Winter said if the M1 — prone to traffic-stalling snarl-ups every time there is an accident — was not fixed in just “a few years” it would start to impact visitor numbers to the city.
“It’s like the gorilla in the cage that has escaped from the zoo,” he said at the time.
“It’s the number one, two and three story on the Gold Coast because in a few years if we can’t solve that issue it’s going to choke growth,” Mr Winter said.
A third of Chinese and Japanese tourists to the Gold Coast arrive via the M1.
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