A tourism campaign positioning the Gold Coast as the ultimate family-friendly holiday destination has generated an estimated $20 million economic return for the Coast’s tourism industry.
Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones said the $2.5 million ‘come and play’ campaign was designed to build on the momentum generated in domestic markets by the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
“This campaign was all about capitalising on the success of the Commonwealth Games to attract more visitors and grow the tourism industry on the Coast,” she said.
“We invest in tourism because it’s vital to creating jobs on the Gold Coast.
“The success of this campaign shows the ongoing popularity of the Coast in the family market following the huge exposure the destination received during the Games.”
Ms Jones said the results released today showed more than 4000 holiday packages generating 21,000 room nights were sold during the campaign, with results still to come in from airline and theme park partners.
“With more than 1.5 billion viewers world-wide, the Commonwealth Games gave the Gold Coast the kind of exposure money can’t buy,” she said.
“The challenge was always going to be converting that exposure into a win for the local tourism industry – today’s results show we’ve achieved that.”
Ms Jones said the campaign had been delivered through a partnership between Tourism and Events Queensland, Destination Gold Coast, Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Ardent Leisure.
The Minister said a survey conducted as part of the campaign also revealed 84 per cent of people agree that the Gold Coast is the theme park capital of Australia.
“Half of the respondents surveyed said they intended to visit the Gold Coast in the next 12 months, so the campaign is set to deliver returns over the longer term for the Gold Coast’s tourism industry,” she said.
“This shows that the key messages delivered by the campaign – that the Gold Coast is the place to come and play, whether at theme parks, on the beach or in the hinterland – have inspired families to book their next holidays here.”
Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista said the ‘come and play’ family-centric campaign repositioned the Gold Coast as Australia’s favourite playground.
“Aussie families are front and centre of Gold Coast’s tourism marketing efforts – they represent our bread and butter, which largely consists of domestic tourists,” Ms Battista said.
“The campaign’s extensive appeal saw interest convert into visitation, with bookings averaging 4.9 nights and the delivery of 86,500 leads to tourism businesses.
“This investment resulted in $20 million uplift in economic return for the city and reiterates our ongoing commitment to the tourism industry.
“More recently, we doubled our efforts and launched a $2.6 million winter tourism push to leverage the success of ‘come & play’ in key visitor markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.”
Village Roadshow Theme Parks CEO Clark Kirby said the joint campaign was a wonderful initiative which truly showcased the Gold Coast as Australia’s favourite holiday playground.
“We are incredibly pleased with the success of the campaign in not only promoting awareness for the Gold Coast as Australia’s playground, but in also showcasing the many great experiences on offer,” Mr Kirby said.
“Our theme parks are an iconic part of the Gold Coast and we were proud to work with Tourism and Events Queensland, Destination Gold Coast and Ardent Leisure on this campaign which had a strong focus on driving visitation to the Coast which is hugely important to the tourism industry.”
Dreamworld CEO John Osborne applauded the success of the campaign.
“As Australia’s biggest theme park, we were pleased to see this campaign has been a success in raising awareness for the Gold Coast as Australia’s playground for families,” Mr Osborne said.
“This campaign has helped showcase the Gold Coast’s extensive range of family-friendly activities and entertainment on offer, particularly to the interstate market.
“We were delighted to be a part of a campaign that highlighted the best of the Gold Coast including our very own world-class attractions, providing the perfect way for families to ‘come and play’ and create lifelong memories together.”
