TIME TO FORCE PORT POINT
THE Gold Coast will welcome an influx of cashed-up visitors for two sales showcases that have become important staples on our winter events calendar.
The Sanctuary Cove Boat Show and the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Mid-Year Sales attract thousands of high-net worth visitors from overseas and interstate to our shores for extended stays during what is traditionally a quiet time of year.
More than 23,000 people, including some of horseracing’s biggest names, will muster on the Coast in the next two weeks for the Magic Millions mid-year sales alone.
While the sales are expected to generate nearly $150 million, the crowds they attract will tip millions more into the local economy.
Similarly, the 30th instalment of the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show will attract a high-yield crowd of cashed-up visitors and more than $200 million worth of vessels.
The event’s enduring popularity is a timely reminder of how important a permanent, onwater customs clearance port is to our valuable marine industry.
Anchored by luxury boat building brands Riviera and Maritimo, the city’s marine industry has worked long and hard to keep itself afloat, particularly during the global financial crisis, without almost no government assistance.
Back when the boat show was first held in 1989 to promote the launch of Sanctuary Cove lifestyle resort, it had 100 exhibitors.
Fast forward to today and it now boasts three times that and attracts an estimated 40,000 people through its gates.
Industry stakeholders, backed by local Federal and State MPs, Gold Coast City Council and the Gold Coast Waterways Authority, fought for years to have Southport Yacht Club included on a list of approved international arrival points as part of a Federal Government trial in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games. The absence of such a facility has forced superyachts to clear customs in Brisbane and cost the Gold Coast economy millions in potential revenue.
The large number of foreign-flagged vessels that opted to arrive in Australia via the Gold Coast as part of the trial port proved how important a permanent on-water customs clearance facility is to our marine industry’s continued growth.
Marine industry stakeholders agree — the Border Force station at Southport Yacht Club made a tremendous difference to the Gold Coast. Because cashed-up owners and users of foreign flagged vessels plan cruises years in advance, the true benefits of a permanent port facility could take 12 to 18 months to fully realise.
With more waterways than Venice and one of the highest boat ownerships in the world, the Gold Coast has everything it needs to become a leading big boat destination — except an on-water customs port.
It’s time government took the city’s marine industry seriously and capitalised on our opportunity to present ourselves as a premier cruising destination.
Our city sits among some of the most pristine and safest waters in the world – the perfect drawcard for marine craft great and small.
It’s time the Federal Government prioritised an on-water customs clearance port on the Gold Coast for foreign-flagged vessels to cement our marine scene as a must-visit port of call on the international map.
It’s time to make the trial Border Force facility a permanent fixture.