Vitamin ‘sea’ adds to a healthy Coast ambience
THE sun-soaked ’70s scene of families carting the equivalent of a second home to the beach, with mum smearing too much sunscreen over kids’ noses and yanking down a dorky bucket hat, is all but gone.
Instead, Surfers Paradise beach is packed with mainly internationals.
It is visitors such as these that city leaders hope will be attracted to spend more time on the Coast if proposals to allow pockets of city beachfront to be commercialised come to fruition.
Simone Gomide from Brazil lives in Brisbane but travels the two-plus hours at least once a week for a dose of vitamin ‘sea’.
For Pedro and Matheus, Surfers Paradise beach is their back yard. They head down of a morning multiple days a week and usually stay until the skyscrapers start to cast a shadow on the beach. On this day, kicking around a soccer ball, they absorbed Daniel from Korea and Raphael from France into their group and the four played like old mates.
Marie and Leo from France had read about the Gold Coast’s magical beaches online, in tourist and backpacker forums, and decided to chase the surf.
Paula and Francisca didn’t even bring their bikinis. They just wanted to soak up some sun while sitting on the sand.
Dean Gould, Destination Gold Coast’s executive director of corporate affairs and strategy, said the change was representative of the times.
“The beach is central to the marketing of the Gold Coast but it is fair to say the way we portray the beach has evolved over the years,” he said.
“The beach is now more the setting or the environment of a much broader Gold Coast experience than a singular destination in its own right. The idea of sunbaking for hours on the sand has also changed over the generations so the way visitors use the beach now has also altered.”
“It is more of a compelling backdrop to all the different things visitors can do – walk on the sand, take photos of the sunrise, whale watching, learning to surf, fishing, swimming, the list goes on. It is the beauty of our beachside city that gives the Gold Coast its ambience and everything from art shows to cuisine to theme parks is affected by it.”