HIGH-END BEACHFRONT OFFERINGS A TOURISM WINNER

I HAVE been a massive supporter of enhancing the city and its tourism offer with proper commercialisation of beach areas for the past 10 years.

I feel like we are a progressive city and we should look at commercialising the beaches. Obviously, we already do a lot there with the Schoolies festival on the Surfers Paradise beachfront and the upcoming SandTunes concert festival that will be on Coolangatta’s beachfront. There is opera, there are carols, so things have been moving forward.

But we have 42 kilometres of coastline and if we have maybe four to five separate areas, one at Surfers Paradise, at Main Beach, at Burleigh — just as examples — and have designated little spots where we have the ability to commercialise that part, I’m telling you, it would be amazing.

It would be a huge tourism attraction just like many places have overseas.

It would be governed just the same way bars and restaurants are governed at the moment. There would be strict licensing conditions, strict operating hours and an aim to really embrace the most amazing asset we have here and complement that with amazing restaurants and bars.

One thing that should be clear is this is not about impacting the natural asset — you would not be taking over the whole beach.