Tourism hit over theme parks

A GOLD Coast theme parks boss does not believe the city’s tourism marketing arm is giving enough attention to what he considers “the headline act”.

Village Roadshow, which operates MovieWorld, Wet ’n’ Wild and Sea World attractions, has invested $100 million in its operations in the past financial year. It includes $30 million for the new DC Rivals HyperCoaster, the fastest and highest in the Southern Hemisphere.

But Village executive general manager theme parks and resorts Bikash Randhawa said you wouldn’t know it going by a lack of hype from Gold Coast Tourism about the HyperCoaster and next year’s planned $30m Topgolf attraction.

“I get that we want to talk about restaurants and all that sort of stuff, but we are not the food capital of Australia – we are the entertainment capital of Australia,” he said.

“We have world-class attractions in theme parks, we have world-class shows. I would have thought every tourism body and marketing agency charged to promote the city would be embracing us with open arms and we’d be at the forefront, we’d be the headline act.

“We have $100m in play here. I mean seriously, we’re investing but we need more and more people to know this,” Mr Randhawa said. “I really do not understand why when we’ve just got one of the world’s best and biggest coasters, would you not be celebrating that?”

Mr Randhawa said the $30m Topgolf entertainment complex complete with hospitality opening in May beside MovieWorld would be an incredible new attraction for the city.

“But no one is talking about it. I find it quite bizarre. The marketing geniuses we have in town are not giving it the attention it deserves.”

Other Village attractions included Sea World’s Polar Bear cub exhibit and fully interactive immersive Castaway Bay Reef.

It is not the first time Village Roadshow top brass has heavily criticised Gold Coast Tourism marketing.

In April, Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke called Gold Coast Tourism’s new national promotion – focusing on city hospitality offerings and “influencers” – so bland “it might as well be Hobart”.

At the time, he called it a flagrant waste of money which ignored theme parks.

Gold Coast Tourism CEO Martin Winter, responding to Mr Randhawa’s latest criticism, said theme parks were a central, vital and vibrant part of Gold Coast tourism.

“Gold Coast Tourism has worked closely and successfully with the city’s theme parks for decades,” he said.