Ciobo’s Winter blast BY THE NUMBERS

Tourism Minister concerned about Coast foothold

FEDERAL Tourism Minister Steve Ciobo is blasting Gold Coast Tourism for “losing market share” – and its CEO is hitting right back.

International visitors, bed nights and spend are up nationwide but on the Gold Coast bed nights and spend dropped for the 12 months to June.

The Coast had a seven per cent rise in foreign tourists but a two per cent dip in bed nights and four per cent drop in spend, latest figures show.

Coast-based Mr Ciobo said his Government was putting “record funding” into Tourism Australia and seeing record numbers, trip length and spend nationally as a result.

“It is concerning me the Gold Coast continues to lose market share compared to other destinations. We’re more than doing our part to attract more tourists to Australia.

“We need the Coast to perform better at getting a bigger slice of what is a bigger pie.”

GC Tourism CEO Martin Winter said the comments were “just a cheap shot at the Gold Coast tourism industry”.

“I don’t know where he is coming from,” Mr Winter said.

“The average length of stay has been an issue for 10 years. That is the primary reason why total visitor spend has not grown at the same satisfying rate as visitor numbers.”

Mr Winter said the trend had been for shorter breaks, encouraged by cheaper airfares out of Melbourne and Sydney.

“We are particularly hard hit because traditionally the Gold Coast has been a destination for long family holidays.

“As that trend declines the effect is felt more on the Gold Coast. No one stays two weeks any more – we are finding people are time poor.”

Mr Winter said they were trying to convince trip wholesalers to package longer stays.

“My call is for all levels of government to make it more attractive for investors to build new attractions which will keep people here another day.”

GC Tourism chairman Paul Donovan said the body had a “long discussion” two weeks ago about a campaign to boost bed nights and length of stay.

“Mr view of tourism has always been a collaborative effort brings the best results.”

All up, just over one million Gold Coast visitors spent $1.2 billion in the city. AUSTRALIA: Foreign visitors up 9 per cent, bed nights up 7 per cent, spend up 7 per cent; GOLD COAST: Foreign visitors up 7 per cent, bed nights dip 2 per cent, spend dip 4 per cent; CHINESE VISITORS: Up 10 per cent nationally, up 7 per cent to 303,000 for the Gold Coast, spend up 10 per cent nationally, down 4 per cent for the Gold Coast.