Drop in Australian visitors ‘anomaly’

THE Gold Coast’s new boss of tourism is shrugging off a dip in Australians visiting the city in the past year as an “anomaly” linked to the Commonwealth Games.

Australians holidaying on the Gold Coast dropped 1.2 per cent to 3.5 million for the year to June 30.

But the city recorded a 3.9 per cent jump in spend to $3.1 billion.

Asked about the dip, Destination Gold Coast’s new CEO Annaliese Battista said: “We experienced softer months in the leadup to the Commonwealth Games and that has flowed into this June quarter.

“The 2017-18 financial year was really an anomaly – the Gold Coast hosted the Commonwealth Games and we know that domestic visitors may have delayed holidays.

“We have seen megaevents around the world experiencing this phenomena immediately before and after they are staged, so we too are not immune to this,” she said.

Despite the soft preGames, visitors into the Gold Coast jumped 11 per cent from April to June which included the Games fortnight.

All up 897,000 Aussies stayed overnight during the three months.

But the visitor boost during April’s Games doesn’t account for significant numbers of locals quitting town which led to the city being dubbed the “Ghost Coast”.

That was compounded by a 9.6 per cent drop in Brisbane overnight visitors for the year.

Ms Battista told the Bulletin: “We anticipated a large proportion of the April to June figures would be attributed to Games patronage which reflects the 11 per cent spike in visitation.

“However, the 9.6 per cent decline in Brisbane overnight visitors for the year, clearly highlights three months of trepidation in the lead-up to the Games,” she said.

For the year, day trippers soared 20.3 per cent to 7.4 million visitors and their spend grew by 13.8 per cent to $733 million.

The biggest group of interstate visitors hailed from Sydney which accounted for 18.5 per cent of 1.85 million domestic overnight tourists to the Gold Coast.