Tourism Destination Management

This article discusses the tourism destination management of Gold Coast, Australia. It covers the demography of visitors, objectives and strategies for tourism destination management, and two emerging trends. The article suggests two strategies for attracting more tourists to the region.

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Tourism Destination Management
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Overview
Dredge and Jamal (2013) stated that Australia is a place that has been attracting
tourists in the recent years due to its advertising campaigns and one of the famous places that
tourists can visit is situated in Queensland known as Gold Coast. It is a favourite destination
among the people, as they get to enjoy many activities as well. The region is located on the
Eastern Coast of the country and particularly located at the South-Eastern part of Queensland.
It stretches from Russell Island to Beenleigh where there are sporting activities such as
surfing and living in the canal as well. The Australian government had published a report
where it was stated that in the year 2013-14, there were almost 6 million tourists who visited
the region. It was seen that the level of profit in this industry plummeted to a great extent due
to the inflow of foreign currencies and the jobs of the local people were somehow connected
with this industry on a direct or indirect manner.
Mason (2015) was of the view that the abundance of pristine beaches are a major
attraction of the place that tends to draw the attention of the visitors to the particular place.
Some of the places that attract the visitors are Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Currumbin and
Main Beach. The area also has an abundance of shopping malls so that the visitors can
experience a better level of shopping as well along with the beauty of the area. The tourist
demography shows that almost 34 percent of the population are males while the rest of the
visitors are females. 35-44 years of age is the most favourable age group that visits this area
after which 45-54 years and 25-34 years old visitors come to the place. The place majorly
attracts the middle aged females due to the serene beauty of the place.
Hurriyati and Sofwan (2015) further stated that visitors along with their families
constitute almost 48 percent of the population. Almost 15 percent of the population that visits
the place belong to the childless couple who are middle aged that is seconded by working

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couples. Single people with no child constitutes of 10 percent of the population and almost 13
percent of the demography belong to the couples and singles who are not working. Moreover
according to Voigt and Pforr (2013), almost 43 percent of the visitors who are coming to the
area are with their family members and 29 percent of the visitors are accompanied by their
partners to the destination. The income level is also a major factor as it can be seen that the
income level of $78,000-$103,999 on an annual basis constitutes almost 19 percent of the
people who are visiting the area. This is followed by $52,000-$79,999 that constitutes 17
percent of the population. Moreover around 12 percent of the population constitutes of
visitors who have an annual income of $104,000-$129,999. Thus it can be stated that the
area caters to people of different income levels due to its diverse characteristics. Most of the
people who are visiting the place are for leisure and sports activities whereas only 1 percent
of the population visits for business activities.
Tourism Australia on a recent manner has started promoting the region through better
level of advertisements so that more number of people can be aware of it. This resulted in an
increase of 25 percent of Chinese people from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Other countries such as
the United States, India and Japan has also experienced a rise of 15 percent, 21 percent and
15 percent respectively.
Objectives and strategies for tourism destination management
The destination tourism management plans to increase its expenditure through the
visitors by $7 billion at the end of 2020. This can be achieved by developing the area for
future purposes so that the visitors can be guided in a proper manner, which will allow the
industry to flourish properly. The management will try to achieve this by increasing its
techniques of acquisition in an aggressive way, which can be achieved through the
participation of local people in a mass manner (Ruhanen 2013). The share in the market will
also be increased, as the visitors will be spending more than an average of time in the location

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as well. The investment in these activities needs to be developed so that it can help in
providing better level of benefits to the visitors. This will result in attracting more number of
visitors to the place as well. The Chinese market can be attracted by making direct flight
paths in Gold Coast by the government. This will help in increasing the inflow of cash in the
tourism activities.
The strategy that needs to be taken up by the Gold Coast management is that they
need to increase their partnership agreements with various local authorities so that it can
boost the visitors. The partnerships needs to be done with Connecting Southern Gold Coast,
Local Tourism Organization, Broadbeach Alliance and Surfers Paradise Alliance, where the
coordination needs to be done so that it can conduct the events in a successful manner
(Prebensen, Chen and Uysal 2018). These events and collaboration will help in increasing the
growth opportunity so that the productivity level can be increased. The next strategy that can
be taken up is to valance out the portfolio that is present in the market in a better manner.
This can be done by promoting the brand of tourism in an efficient manner through the proper
use of advertisements and other promotional activities towards its target market. These
promotions need to be done using the latest digital platforms so that the visitors can be
attracted in an effective way.
Two emerging trends
Hurriyati and Sofwan (2015) was of the view that one of the emerging trends that can
be taken up is to increase the inflow of Chinese market, as the tourism market of the country
is booming to a great extent. The Chinese has increase its rate of travelling so that it can
relieve them of the stress that they are facing at the work place. The Chinese economy is
booming and it can be seen that they spend heavily towards the tourism sector as well.
According to statistics, the people have spent $498 billion in the year 2013 to cover their
travelling expenses for visiting different countries and places. The use of the emerging

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technologies has allows them in increasing their rate of communication, as the major barrier
for them was communicating in a common dialect. They have increased the use of the
translation devices so that it can help them in understanding the foreign languages in a better
way. The use of the English language as a common medium has also increased their
capability of communication with the other countries when they visit the places.
According to Dredge and Jamal (2013), another major trend that is being followed in
the industry is that most of the tourists are looking for places that are quiet and calm so that
they can enjoy the activities in a peaceful manner. They want their holidays to be peaceful for
which they search the social media platforms to find such locations. The desire to visit less
popular destinations among the tourists have increased to a great extent, as they are of the
view that it will help in protecting the serenity of the area. The locals in the domestic area
also show interest in visiting the destination, which has increased the visitor number as well.
There has been an increase among the visitors who prefer adventure tourism such as surfing,
jungle treks, rafting and kayaking.
Suggestion of two strategies
The strategic program that the Gold Coast tourism needs to be take up so that it can
attract more number of tourists is to keep the place clean. The main objective of the
management is to increase the footfall of visitors by 2020 for which the cleanliness of the
region is important. The clean environment will have a direct impact on the customers in a
positive manner, as there will be a decrease in the number of mishaps or accidents (Mason
2015). The environment needs to be clean so that it can help in protecting the serenity of the
area and the place will be natural as well. The economy of the area due to the clean
environment will boost up, as most of the visitors will be able to enjoy the region in a natural
manner. The decrease in the level of pollution will also attract more number of visitors to the
place (Probensen, Chen and Uysal 2018).

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The second strategy is that the management needs to promote the services of the place
in a better manner that are present in the Gold Coast region. This will help in attracting more
number of people due to the increase in the level of awareness. The promotional activities
need to be done on social as well as print media so that it can attract a large number of
visitors. The place also needs to be advertised as am area of adventure sports so that it can
appeal to the sports-loving section of people in the society.

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Reference List
Dredge, D. and Jamal, T., 2013. Mobilities on the Gold Coast, Australia: Implications for
destination governance and sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(4),
pp.557-579.
Hurriyati, R. and Sofwan, D.M.P., 2015. Analysis of co-creation experience towards a
creative city as a toursim destination and its impact on revisit intention. Journal of
Environmental Management & Tourism, 6(2 (12)), p.353.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Prebensen, N.K., Chen, J.S. and Uysal, M. eds., 2018. Creating experience value in tourism.
Cabi.
Ruhanen, L., 2013. Local government: facilitator or inhibitor of sustainable tourism
development?. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(1), pp.80-98.
Voigt, C. and Pforr, C. eds., 2013. Wellness tourism: A destination perspective. Routledge.