LET’S LAY ON A BIT OF OUR LUXURY FOR TOURISTS
It’s time to provide all-day food and beverage establishments on the Gold Coast’s glorious beachfront
IT’S starting to look like things are opening up and we’re in a somewhat better place in Australia than most of the rest of the world right now.
Good leadership, a great health system and a truckload of commonsense from everyday Australians have got us to this strong position in terms of the pandemic.
Now comes the second big test – how do we manage our way out of this from an economic viewpoint? That’s the $300 billion question.
One critical piece of the economic puzzle is tourism and how it gets back. Mission critical in the place we call home, the Gold Coast. We simply have to get that right, for all our sakes.
An old concept has raised its head in recent days and I want to prosecute the case one more time.
Let’s get behind allowing some all-day food and beverage establishments on beachfront land on our stunning foreshore.
I wrote extensively on this in my column way back in October 2018, so it’s not new.
I had just holidayed in Muscat, Oman, and like much of the Mediterranean it has allowed beachfront dining and facilities.
If they can allow it there, why not here?
That intrepid tourist aficionado Paul Donovan raised it again last week. Now I love taking shots at Paul’s lack of aerobridges at the Gold Coast Airport and he loves having a crack back. Friendly crossfire, it’s all good stuff. I’m a sport so I occasionally let him win a round or two.
However, this time credit where credit is due – he is absolutely spot on.
He is the chairman of Gold Coast Tourism and he can envisage what a huge lift it would give all our tourism operators. It gives the city another bow in its armoury for attracting tourists.
He gets, and I agree, that in today’s market a tourist destination like the GC needs all the opportunities it can lay on for the discerning tourist who is contemplating that eternal tourist question: “Where will I/we go?”
In case you hadn’t noticed, it is bloody competitive and we are in the fight to get our pound of tourist flesh.
Come aboard this important concept. What is required here is some access on our stunning beaches for private operators to have hospitality on the actual sand. Simple stuff like providing a quality tourist service like umbrellas, deck chairs, creature comforts, food and drinks service and drastic ideas like music.
Not radical on many famous beaches throughout the world and actually the norm, so it’s about time we provided it. From the French Riviera to the hot spots of the Greek islands, and even in Muscat!
We keep telling ourselves we are a sophisticated tourism product that holds its spot with the rest of the world, so what is stopping us? Less bullshit and more action, that’s what’s needed.
My argument last time, which is still valid today, was please don’t pull out the old stupid line that it is giving up our valuable beachfront to private operators.
We have at least 25km of Glitter Strip beachfront. So, let’s say we have 10 of these beachfront establishments and each one is 50m wide. Then we have used up 500m in total and left about 24.5km of beach for Mr and Mrs Joe Public