CHALKING UP THE BENEFITS

A LEADING drug and alcohol educator says the Queensland component of Schoolies should be knocked back to three days.

Mayor Tom Tate, a former hotel owner, agrees, as do others.

This will surely kickstart another serious debate on the value of Schoolies, as the city weighs up problems and benefits.

On the one hand is the physical and emotional burnout among partying school leavers. Drug and Alcohol Research and Training director Paul Dillon says the graduating students appear to have just one booking option – a full week package – which locks them in for the long haul. The problem, he says, is that a week of solid partying is too much for anyone, and also allows time for the sort of risky behaviour that is not going to end well. He has serious concerns about potential for drug fatalities when the festival starts.

Cr Tate says in his experience, many students had partied enough and gone home after three days. He recalls many problems like vandalism occurred in the latter part of the week when among those who remained were elements who were bored, tired and belligerent.

So who does benefit? The views are conflicting, even on that. Each year there are reports of property owners complaining of damage and locals complaining they do not feel comfortable going into Surfers.

The clean-up bill for the mall, the streets and the beach is met by ratepayers and the costs of the safety net put in place by police, ambulance and hospital emergency departments left to babysit or mop up the human mess are met by taxpayers.

We know the fast food outlets are busy, as are the bottle shops. And even if the bottlos rigidly enforce laws banning underage kids from buying grog, we know there are adults – parents – supplying the kids.

If the Gold Coast were to scrap Schoolies, which is virtually impossible because the kids would come anyway, what would be the alternative? This is a dilemma for the likes of the city’s new major events supremo, Jan McCormick. Is it feasible to condense the first week into a three-day festival? Support is growing.

With up to 30,000 schoolies coming across the festival period, there has to be a broader impact on the economy than just the bonanza for burger joints and bottlos. It has been estimated the schoolies actually inject up to $50 million into the local economy. That isn’t all being blown on takeaways and bottles of fizzy drink. For starters, they are heading to theme parks.

Tourism Minister Kate Jones in the past has talked up the value of turning the influx of schoolies into long-term repeat visitors.

We have to agree. There is no gain, as they say, without pain – and that can happen when a minority push boundaries.

Instead of schoolies burning themselves out in an alcohol and drug-fuelled frenzy, we want them to realise there is much more to the experience here than partying in a room or on the street, throwing up and then sleeping it off all the next day.

The Schoolies festival is what the city makes of it, rather than just the kids. The challenge is to entice them to sample across the board, store memories and come back again and again, eventually with their own families. This is the benefit of Schoolies for tourism and the economy.