Venues to raise bar for Games nations
LITTLE South Africa, Canada-town and the Malaysian District are all set to pop up across the Gold Coast in an effort to make visitors feel more at home during the Commonwealth Games.
The Southport Chamber of Commerce is asking venues to “adopt a country” and act as a safe haven for tourists during the Commonwealth Games.
Each bar or restaurant would be a place for visitors to watch their athletes on the satellite Games coverage feed of their home country.
Southport Chamber of Commerce spokesman Noel Grummit said venues would be expected to decorate their areas in the country’s colours and flags.
“They can come watch their own athletes when they are not at the actual events,” Mr Grummit said.
The chamber came across the idea after a member had been to a bar in Brisbane which regularly shows ice hockey matches for expat Canadians.
“We thought it was a novel idea to bring more people into the area,” Mr Grummit said.
The chamber is searching for Southport venues willing to adopt a country for the Games.
“What we hope is that it will last after the Games and those tourists will then have a place to go and feel at home when they visit,” Mr Grummit said.
While the chamber is looking to set up unofficial venues to host Commonwealth Games events, some teams are already adopting a home base on the Gold Coast.
Surfers Paradise’s House of Brews has been named an official venue of the Canadian team and plans to spend the 10 days of the Games filled with poutine (french fries, cheese curds and brown gravy) and the colours red and white.
House of Brews owner Sacha Kanaghines, who lived in Canada for about three years, said the decision to get involved seemed natural.
“We have had a couple of really successful events for Canada Day in July before,” he said.
“We have basically just opened the door to the team, their supporters and family during the Games.”
GOLDOC CEO Mark Peters said the Southport chamber’s idea was welcomed but there were challenges.
“With regards to the television signals, unfortunately the technical challenges of sending individual signals to single properties and broadcast rights obligations make this impractical,” he said.
“Also GOLDOC is aware that a number of the visiting teams will, as they traditionally do at Commonwealth and Olympic Games, establish meeting places for their fans throughout the city, with Jamaica, Scotland, England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and several others traditionally setting up ‘houses’.”
Mr Peters urged the Southport Chamber to become involved in other multicultural initiatives for the Games.