Gold Coast businesses blindsided by trade drop council expected for the Commonwealth Games

FURIOUS Gold Coast business owners say they are reeling and are demanding answers over why they didn’t know about an expected downturn in trade during the Commonwealth Games.

FURIOUS business owners say they were blindsided by the lack of business to come from the Commonwealth Games, as the Griffith Business School report predicted, and want to know why they weren’t told of the findings by Get Set for the Games.

Mirage restaurateur Carlo Percuoco from Fellini who had told the Gold Coast Bulletin earlier he would join a class action against the empty Get Set for the Games hype, said he was shocked by the report.

“If we knew we would have been prepared was the response from businesses, who were shocked to discover the predictions, known to council.

Marina Mirage restaurateur Carlo Percuoco from Fellini says the traffic scare campaign by GOLDOC has hurt his business. Picture: Jerad Williams

“I wish I would have seen that six months ago, we could have reviewed planning,” Mr Percuoco said.

“Instead we had a council Get Set for the Games representative telling us to expect 600,000 people through.

“In the only official contact we had, we were told all these silly things, to stock up, deliveries are going to be late, all this negative stuff,” he said.

Mr Percuoco who had ordered extra stock and rostered extra staff for the event said he wasn’t annoyed by quiet weeks, it was the confusion.

“It’s about being kept in the dark, having a slow to weeks is a fact of life, what is bullsh*t is the numbers they fed us.

“My gripe is well where is the research you guys have done, you have a university study and didn’t use it — why?” he said.

Teaki Page of Feed the Earthlings said she was blindsided

Broadbeach restaurant, Feed the Earthlings owner Teaki Page who had found the Griffith Business School report at the beginning of the year said there was a clear disparity between the information being provided by Get Set for the Games.

“But I never read any of that (Griffith report information) in the Get Set for the Games info, had I not delved in deeper I would have been completely blindsided” .

“At no point was it suggested to anyone anywhere that business would be down at all.

“If Council had that information and they didn’t share it with us there is no way they had our best interests at heart at any point,” she said.

COAST BUSINESSES URGED TO IGNORE TRAFFIC CAMPAIGN

For the vegan eatery sales had been down by 17.5 per cent compared to last year, with increased costs due to extra staff on the graveyard shift to accept deliveries.

“We are on skeleton staff for the next few weeks to try to recover,” Ms Page said.

“The campaign seemed to be aimed at getting everyone off the road not, to actually help businesses,” she said.

The Night Quarter was anticipated to remain open over the entire Commonwealth Games period.

The findings were less of a shock for Helensvale Night Quarter director Michelle Christoe, who has received a copy of the report from the business school at the time of the launch.

“Locals were engaged by Get Set for Games but it was the wrong messages continuously reinforced,” she said.

For Ms Christoe however, not all of the recommendations in the Griffith report assisted with the lack of foot traffic during the day.

Trade was significantly down for Easter and school holidays and was not replaced by sufficient Games visitors to make up the numbers, as the report suggested.

While the group had developed a strong community outreach program as the report recommended visitors did not arrive.

“Surveys with patrons have indicated that the messages for staying away were louder than the ones encouraging locals to join the party,” Ms Christoe said.

The space which was intended to be open over the whole games period was closed for two days, however attracted huge numbers on Saturday night.

“Well trended the most tenancy on Saturday night, it was just that it didn't correlate during the day,” she said.