Trams, cruise ships crucial to city’s tourism economy

CONGRATULATIONS to Mayor Tom Tate, MP Michael Hart, Bulletin assistant editor Keith Woods and “backward Gold Coasters” letter writer.

They are right on many points with the trams to the airport and a cruise ship terminal. We need the trams and we need the ships urgently. We don’t need negative old selfish naysayers.

It’s heartbreaking watching those great ocean liners pass our front door loaded with money.

Tourism generates employment on the Gold Coast. Empty shops in all of the shopping centres worries me, and more tourist money will help fill them.

Interstate and overseas visitors want to be near the sea. Push for more tourists for our very existence.

Send the trams from Burleigh to the airport via Burleigh Headland National Park in the middle of the road. There is plenty of room to form an extra two traffic lanes, one either side at a reasonable cost as the space is there. Then on through Palm Beach in the centre of the road like Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney trams. Why can’t we do the same?

Palm Beach want the trams. Tweed council want the trams and will subsidise it. Get on with the job as quickly as possible. Put the cruise ship terminal on Wave Break Island. It’s an ugly mud flat.

What could be more beautiful than a magnificent cruise liner sitting in the Broadwater in a natural harbour, instead of mud.

Don’t put it out in the wild ocean. What would that cost with a deep water wharf?

Tourists spend money in ports. They are not poor. Think how our shops would benefit, clothes, restaurants, fun parks, taxis, tours, extended stays in hotels, some will buy property. Yes, I do not like to see the great ocean liners going past our front door either. Gold Coast is the holiday capital of Australia

We must get these jobs done quickly with trams and ships. Forget the naysayers, they will be dead in a couple of years but our children need permanent jobs. BARRY JENKINSON GOLD COAST