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Chief Executive Officer's Summary
By further increasing internal efficiencies, the total funds devoted to marketing increased by 15% to 86% of total expenditure.
Over the past 12 months, we have acknowledged the impacts of the global recession on domestic and international tourism as a matter of fact. However, this has not changed our determination to grow tourist numbers and expenditure for the City of Gold Coast.
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The achievement of this, particularly when compared to the general decline in tourism to Queensland and our competitor destinations is an exceptionally positive and hard fought outcome.
Gold Coast Tourism’s contribution to this result was to focus all our destination marketing resources on high return activity, and extend our expenditure by leveraging the work of Tourism Australia and Tourism Queensland. Our prime objective continued to be the generation of demand from leisure and business travellers to enable industry to capitalise by converting visitor opportunities into booked business. By further increasing internal efficiencies, the total funds devoted to marketing increased by 15% to 86% of total expenditure.
At the same time, Gold Coast Tourism produced an outstanding financial result by applying tight management control. This delivered an operating surplus of $1.65 million which not only underpins the company’s sustainability, but also facilitates its ability to react positively to emerging opportunity. Close scrutiny of all expenditure ensures the best return on investment for our funds. The generation of $38 million in unpaid media exposure over the year through effective public relations activity highlights the results that Gold Coast Tourism has achieved through our focus on efficient resource management.
Because of our commitment to corporate operations, Gold Coast Tourism was able to roll out an extensive number of high quality domestic and international campaigns, familiarisations and sales missions in 2009/2010 which delivered positive results for the destination. At the same time, several excellent staff appointments were made to ensure the delivery of the programs and to improve the capability of the company going forward. In recognition of the great potential that lies in China, we acted decisively by closing our
Singapore office and redirecting our resources to Shanghai, where we now have a full time representative building the Gold Coast’s trade credentials as Asia’s favourite holiday destination and driving demand from consumers.
Staff in our two Visitor Information Centres in Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta continued their great work in providing visitors with a friendly welcome and professional service, meeting the needs of nearly a quarter of a million visitors.
The Gold Coast Convention Bureau, a business unit within Gold Coast Tourism, submitted 162 bids for conference, incentive and corporate meetings, winning 65 for the destination which produced an economic impact of $24,080,934. In addition, 63 bids remain pending at the end of the year, promising further positive results in 2010 and beyond.
There is no doubt that some sectors of our industry will continue to struggle with the prolongation of the market downturn, the strong Australian dollar and the timing of Ramadan more than others. The immediate challenge for Gold Coast Tourism is to respond to these issues over the forthcoming year and to continue to grow demand. At the same time we must also look to the future to ensure the destination maintains relevance in the context of changing consumer expectations, and to deal effectively with the real issues of aging infrastructure, public safety, workforce skilling and destination image.
On behalf of the entire Gold Coast Tourism team, I wish to thank our members; industry partners; key stakeholders; the Mayor, Councillors and management of the Gold Coast City Council; and our chairman Paul Donovan and the Gold Coast Tourism Board for their continuing confidence and faith in our operations. The tourism industry is fundamental to the economic future of our city, and I look forward to working again in a collaborative manner in the year ahead to strongly contribute to its growth and prosperity.
Key Challenges
• Increase visitor length of stay and expenditure • Grow market share of national business events sector • Maximise the potential of our Chinese investment and new direct flights • Stimulate aviation capacity and new routes at both airports • Capitalise on sport tourism, including the 2018 Commonwealth Games bid • Motivate interest and investment of new major events for the city • Champion projects of the Gold Coast Tourism Opportunities Plan from possibility to reality • Contribute positively to the Gold Coast image
