Brisbane and the Gold Coast look to attract returning tourists

With visitor numbers to South East Queensland having declined sharply as a result of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the region is looking to drive visitor confidence in returning to its attractions.

With the economic cost of the storm estimated to hit $1.2 billion, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the city’s tourism and hospitality sector had taken a big hit, noting “as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approached our city, many Brisbane businesses closed their doors to help keep their staff and their customers safe but this came at a cost.

“That’s why we’re moving quickly to help Brisbane bounce back from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred as quickly as possible.”

Brisbane Economic Development Agency Chief Executive Anthony Ryan has welcomed a new campaign to lure visitors back, noting “the effects of Cyclone Alfred have been deeply felt across our tourism and events industry, and this campaign is part of our determined effort to support local operators, rebuild momentum and drive strong visitor demand across the entire region.”

The Sunshine Coast tourism industry has also been hit with hotel occupancy halved.

Visit Sunshine Coast Chief Executive, Matt Stoeckel advised “our hotel occupancy for March is already down considerably compared to last year.

“It even dips as low as 25% occupancy for the end of the month, this is less than half of what we would have otherwise anticipated.

“I haven’t seen hotels this empty since the pandemic.”

Stoeckel warned that forward bookings had also been affected after some events were forced to cancel, adding “this includes almost 20,000 visitors who were coming to the Coast for events such as the Mooloolaba Tri, Oz Tag Senior State Championships and for several business events.

“Some events have been rescheduled, but others haven’t.

“Our world-class beaches of Noosa and Mooloolaba are looking good and big events such as the Noosa Festival of Surfing and the Mooloolaba Tri later this month are showing we’re in good shape, we just need to get that message out more widely.”

Speaking this week, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated “we are still getting a handle on the economic fallout, but it will be substantial.

“I expect that these costs and these new provisions will be in the order of at least $1.2 billion, a substantial amount of money and that means a big new pressure on the budget.”

New Gold Coast tourism campaign
Aiming to encourage the return of tourism, Experience Gold Coast has launched a three-phased tourism campaign to drive the return of visitors.

The new campaign features a nation-wide media campaign, linked with discounted flights and accommodation and a voucher ‘spend and get’ reward program to continue to drive the visitor economy in the lead up to the Easter and April school holidays.

The initiative is part of a statewide broader strategy to support the region’s tourism recovery and reinforce the message that the Gold Coast is back to business and ready to welcome visitors.

Introducing the campaign, Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate explained “this campaign is about reminding people why we all love the Gold Coast and that we are open for business.

“The City of Gold Coast is proud to support this campaign, and we commend the State Government for also showing they are right behind our beautiful city.

“There is no doubt our city will bounce back, and our iconic beaches will return to their former glory ready to welcome the millions of holidaymakers who choose our destination each year.”

The campaign will be rolled out in three phases. This first phase is calling out to all Gold Coasters and visitors to show the city is open and accessible, share it on their social media channels, tag @ExperienceGoldCoast and use the hashtag #LoveGC.

The second phase is to ensure upcoming bookings over the Easter school holidays are protected while the third phase will reinforce the Gold Coast as a year-round destination to visit, including winter and mid-week.

Experience Gold Coast Chief Executive, John Warn said supporting our visitor economy is a key priority, noting “visitors inject more than $7 billion annually into the Gold Coast economy, creating jobs and opportunities for our community, and we all need to come together and protect this industry and show the rest of Queensland and Australia that we are back in business.”

Commenting on the effects of the Cyclone, Warn added “our Impact Survey shows tourism operators, accommodation providers and restaurants and cafes have been hit hard with almost half of them closed for more than seven days. In the week of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred alone, the estimated lost in visitor spend was $42 million.

"We are projecting a 20% average drop in occupancy on the Gold Coast across the month of March, which we estimate will be a loss of $137 million in overnight expenditure.”

The figure provided by Warn does not include day trippers which traditionally sees close to one million people visiting the Gold Coast over the month of March.

The survey found 89% of businesses experienced immediate cancellation, with 75% losing forward bookings.

Images: Destination Gold Coast's campaign to encourage the return of visitors.