COME PLAY EASTER BOOM
A THEME PARK boss is attributing bumper Easter visitor numbers to a new tourism campaign promoting the city as Australia’s playground.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said a resurgence was likely a result of Destination Gold Coast’s $2.5 million “Come and Play” marketing. The previous “We are Destination Gold Coast” promotion made scant mention of theme parks, focusing instead on dining, coffee culture and lifestyle.
“This is a very good lesson to all to understand the importance of theme parks to this city,” Mr Randhawa said.
A GOLD Coast theme parks boss is attributing bumper Easter visitation to a new tourism campaign promoting the city as Australia’s playground.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said a visitor number resurgence was likely a result of Destination Gold Coast’s $2.5 million “Come and Play’’ marketing.
“(Theme Parks) was an element missing in the last campaign,” he said.
A prior “We are Destination Gold Coast” promotion made scant mention of theme parks, focusing instead on dining, coffee culture and lifestyle.
“This is a very good lesson to all to understand the importance of theme parks to this city,” Mr Randhawa said.
A flood of Australian tourists visiting Movie World, Sea World and Wet’n’Wild reflected recent figures showing the Gold Coast was drawing a record domestic visitors, he said.
Among them yesterday was a Sydney family playing cricket at Kurrawa Park in Broadbeach.
Twins Lucas and Noah Kain, 6, with mate Theodore Moore, 6, and dad Marcus Kain got out the cricket set during the Easter long weekend on the Coast.
Mr Kain said it was an annual Coast visit to relax but the family had ended up jamming their days with activities.
“(We’ve been) paddleboarding at Tallebudgera Creek, laser tag at Timezone, theme parks and the Titans vs Knights,” he said. “We love the Goldy.”
Overnight expenditure has boomed 19.7 per cent to a record $3.5 billion and visitor nights increased nine per cent to 14.7 million.
Mr Randhawa: “We’re seeing stronger visitation, the interstate market is looking great.
“It’s significantly up on last year, which was a complete disaster, as we all know. What we missed out on last year I think we’ve got back and more.
“Every one of our parks is doing exceptionally well. It’s very pleasing to see how Easter panned out for us.”
Ripley’s Believe it or Not! assistant manager Kayla Openshaw said she noticed more visitors – particularly compared to April last year when the Gold Coast hosted the Commonwealth Games.
“In the last three weeks we have seen a spike in domestic travellers,” she said.
But Ms Openshaw said Ripley’s was still drawing fewer visitors than before the Thunder River Rapids Ride quadruple fatality at Dreamworld in 2016.
“A lot of the businesses around here have been down as well,” she said.
Timezone Surfers Paradise operations manager Jamin Jacub had noticed a “positive trend” in Easter visitation.
“The rain has made things a bit better for us,” he said. “This year could be better because of the nature of the holidays. After Easter, it’s very close to Anzac Day, then we have Labour Day.”