REMEMBER WHEN

Thursday, August 13, 1992

IT WAS the early 1990s and business bosses wanted to ensure the 20th century’s final decade would bring extra bang for the city’s tourism buck.

The Gold Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau told the Bulletin it had a “strategic plan to boost the number of international and domestic tourists” visiting the region.

Bureau boss David Hall launched its 125-page tourism plan which detailed how the city would “viperously” compete with Cairns for a bigger slice of the tourism pie.

Mr Hall said the Gold Coast had lost focus on its primary objective to market itself properly.

Under the ambitious plan, it was hoped that the number of tourists coming to Australia would increase by 2 per cent in 1993, with international numbers targeted at an 11 per cent rise.

“I would be pleased to meet that but I really do want to increase our market share,” Mr Hall said.

The plan came after the Gold Coast City Council launched its tourism tax, which collected about $900,000 a year.

The Albert Shire Council also threw its support behind tourism, doubling its funding from $150,000 to $300,000.

This took the bureau’s total budget to about $1.9 million.

Meanwhile, a Canberra court was told a sawn-off doublebarrel shotgun was found in a car that drove into the main doors of Parliament House.

The car went through the doors before finally stopping in the Great Hall.

The man who crashed the car said he could give no explanation as to why he had done it.