Gold Coast officially named biggest holiday market in Queensland
Holiday makers on the Gold Coast between January and March splashed some serious cash, with the staggering grand total earning the region the title of the biggest holiday market in Queensland.
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The Gold Coast is punching well above its weight when it comes to attracting tourists ready to spend big bucks.
In the financial quarter from January through March, overnight visitors who came to the Gold Coast on holidays spent a total of $1.3 billion. That made the city the biggest holiday market in Queensland and the second-largest in Australia – losing out to Melbourne by $200m.
Chief executive of Experience Gold Coast John Warn said the results, which were released by Tourism Research Australia, were exceptional for the Gold Coast.
“When you consider that Q1 this year down in Melbourne they had the F1 and the Australian Open, while we of course had to suffer tropical cyclone Alfred, this is a wonderful result,” Mr Warn said.
A total of 1.2 million domestic visitors descended upon the Gold Coast in the first three months of the year, and in the last 12 months, 634,000 visitors from overseas paid the region a visit.
“New Zealand remains the number one destination to the Gold Coast at over 215,000 visitors, and really promising signs from China, the UK, India, and Japan with results all up on the previous year,” Mr Warn said.
With additional flights connecting the Gold Coast with New Zealand’s south island as of this week, this number is surely set to climb, Mr Warn said.
Holiday makers visiting the Coast spent a whopping $1.3 billion in three months, which made up 72 per cent of expenditure of all visitors to the region.
Those visiting also spent much more than in other parts of Australia, with overnight visitor expenditure sitting at an average total of $1436, or $407 per night.
The average for Queensland is $1115 total, or $311 per night, and across Australia the average total is $972 or $288 per night.
The Gold Coast’s total holiday expenditure lost out to Melbourne, where visitors spent an astronomical $1.5 billion in the first three months of the year. In Sydney holiday-makers spent $1.2 billion, while in Brisbane they only spent $773m.
“To see the results and to see the spend, it really tells us that all the great work that my team are doing in partnership with the city is working,” Mr Warn said.
Gold Coast ambassadors
Experience Gold Coast announced a new ambassadors program on Tuesday, making use of some of the city’s most known and loved personalities to help highlight what makes the region unique.
The new ambassadors include country music sensation Casey Barnes, four-time Olympic swimmer Leisel Jones, media personality Liz Cantor, content creator Nick Atkins, and actress Charlotte Stent.
“We wanted to have a diverse range of authentic ambassadors on the Gold Coast that could help tell the story of the different parts of the Gold Coast they love,” Mr Warn said.
Casey Barnes said the chance to become an ambassador for the city he loves was a “no-brainer.”
“My favourite thing to do on the Gold Coast is stuff with my family, my girls, I mean, we’re so close to the beach so we spend a lot of time down there,” Mr Barnes said.
Leisel Jones said being an ambassador wouldn’t be a huge challenge because the region is such an “easy sell.”
“It’s actually the most stunning region you could possibly ask for,” she said.
As Mr Barnes, Ms Jones, and Mr Warn addressed a small group of media at Broadbeach on Sunday, a whale breeched in the distance, the timing almost comically perfect.
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Originally published as Gold Coast officially named biggest holiday market in Queensland
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