GC600 OFF TRACK
AXING ‘TIP OF AN ICEBERG’
THE $55 million loss of the GC600 carnival is just the tip of a COVID-19 iceberg sinking the city’s lucrative events calendar, warn civic leaders bracing for a tough six months.
The annual motorsport carnival was due to celebrate its 30th anniversary in October but was scrapped at the weekend by Supercars bosses.
They said they could not justify the cost and disruption of building the Surfers Paradise street circuit with no crowds or corporate boxes allowed.
The move has left business owners and political leaders reeling, with warnings the loss of the city’s biggest single event will devastate already struggling accommodation providers and hospitality operators.
Mayor Tom Tate has vowed GC600 will return bigger and better in 2021 but business and tourism leaders say there is worse pain to come.
Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista warned the GC600 loss was just one of several major events likely to be scrapped.
“Its loss, along with others means we will not have a calendar of events for the rest of 2020,” she said.
“My fear is while this cancellation is not a shock, it is another blow to the tourism sector and gives me a great sense of foreboding about the path ahead for the tourism sector because the next six months will be the most difficult in the Gold Coast’s history from an economic point of view.
“There is the real risk of the Gold Coast having its own selfcontained recession as a result of these tourism losses which will have a direct flow on to other fields such as construction.”
Ms Battista will front Gold Coast City Council’s special budget committee today to lay out how up to $4 million of extra funding will be spent to help revive the city’s $6 billiona-year tourism industry.
GC600, which began as Indy in 1991, brings in more than 114,000 people annually for its three-day carnival in October, injecting $45-$55 million into the economy.
Business kingpin Tony Cochrane, who played a key role in Indy, said the cancellation of
GC600 was unavoidable and he expected more would follow.
“Street racing simply cannot go ahead if you do not have the ability to host a crowd or corporate boxes, which are two of the biggest revenue streams,” he said.
The coronavirus has already cost the Gold Coast more than $4 billion, with the city expected to see up to 10 million less tourists this year.
Cr Tate said: “This is another massive blow with the GC600 worth more than $50 million to the economy each year. While it is wonderful to see so many of our businesses reopening, this is a reminder of the difficult road ahead.”
Surfers Paradise MP JohnPaul Langbroek described it as a “hammer blow” to the Coast’s economy.
THE loss of GC600 to the Gold Coast’s economy cannot be overstated.
The motorsports carnival is one of the city’s signature events and brings more than $50 million into the economy annually.
Its cancellation, as a result of COVID-19 social distancing making such a streetcircuit uneconomical to run without crowds, is not surprising.
While many venues have reopened this weekend to great success, the fact that large-scale events five months from now are being cancelled should be a clear and unmistakeable sign that life will not be getting back to normal in a hurry.
While these greater freedoms are welcome after a difficult period of lockdown, it would be naive to believe that life will simply pick up as normal now, or that indeed everything about preCOVID-19 life will return at all.
Social distancing vigilance will continue while large gatherings such as festivals will remain off-limits well into the future –as will international air travel for as long as anyone can guess.
GC600 is a divisive event, with some particularly in favour of it while others loathe the annual disruption as the infrastructure is built, the noisy race is run during three days, and everything is dismantled again afterwards.
But no matter what stance you take on our motorsports carnival, what cannot be argued with is its economic impact and the profile it delivers for the city.
The city is poorer for no having it in 2020 and everything must be done to ensure it on the 2021 calendar.
By far the Gold Coast’s biggest event, the loss of this drawcard will be felt deeply in the community.
The decision not to stage the event this year will have significant ramifications for already hurting accommodation providers and trackside traders such as those in Main Beach’s Tedder Avenue and Surfers Paradise icon mall Cavill Ave who were counting on the influx of people and cash right around the time that economic stimulus will be coming to an end.
Now they will be counting the cost. Our tourism and political leaders now face the positively Sisyphean task of bringing confidence back to a shaken city – which thrives on events – while the hits just keep on coming.
Unfortunately they don’t look like abating any time soon. The aim now is for a reinvigorated GC600 to return next year, maybe under lights.