Awards success propels Surfers
SURFERS Paradise Alliance says it has cracked the “winning formula” in luring crowds into the precinct.
SPA is now looking to surpass $100 million in “gross output” for the local economy after its breakthrough at the Queensland Tourism Awards on Friday night.
The alliance edged out events such as the Magic Millions and the Broadbeach Country Music Festival to claim silver and bronze awards.
SPA said it delivered $96 million (gross output) to the economy last financial year, up from just over $80 million the previous year.
SPA’s CEO Mike Winlaw said the Surfers Paradise Sand Safari (Arts Festival 2017) silver award and Surfers Paradise LIVE 2017 (Major Festivals and Events) bronze award recognised SPA’s continuing efforts to expand the range of free, large-scale annual events on offer in Surfers Paradise.
He said attendance figures in Surfers were up more than 351 per cent in the six years since 2010-11, when 411,000 people visited Surfers Paradise events, with the precinct’s free entertainment offerings projected to attract an extra 1.85 million visitors next year.
August is now the only month Surfers does not have a major event on its calendar.
Mr Winlaw said SPA spent $450,000 staging this year’s Sand Safari Festival in February and $500,00 on Surfers Live in May.
“What our traders have indicated is the Sand Safari influx has meant the month of February is no longer the worst trading month of the year,” he said.
He said SPA would also stick with its “winning formula” in 2018. “We’ll continue working with the Gold Coast Music Awards to ramp that up on the first night of Live and we’ll also be ramping the headline act up next year.”
Mr Winlaw said the Queensland Tourism Awards accolades showed SPA was successfully capitalising on the precinct’s soaring tourism status and its 50 per cent share of the city’s tourist accommodation, with local business and traders the big winners.
He said the fact the Surfers events placed behind Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, which won the major events category, was a coup for SPA and Surfers Paradise as a family-friendly, events destination.
“If you look at our events portfolio, we’re still pretty young compared to an event like Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers, which has been running 49 years. Most events that win have been out there a long time. We were hoping for a bit of a place but to pull off second and third against Carnival of Flowers – we’re extremely happy.”