Gold Coast Schoolies Event: A Tourism and Leisure Reflection Blog

This blog post discusses the Schoolies Week event held annually on the Gold Coast, Australia, focusing on its significance for graduating year 12 students. It highlights Gold Coast's popularity as a tourist destination and the safety measures implemented by Schoolies operators to protect young participants. While the event is a major tourist attraction, concerns regarding student behavior and its impact on other holidaymakers are also addressed. The blog references articles on tourism mobilities, alcohol consumption during Schoolies, and the official Schoolies.com website, providing a comprehensive overview of the event's dynamics and implications. Desklib provides a platform for students to access past papers and solved assignments related to tourism and similar topics.

Running head: SCHOOLIES IN GOLDCOAST
SCHOOLIES IN GOLDCOAST
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1SCHOOLIES IN GOLDCOAST
Schoolies week is one of the most waited fun time event on the Gold Coast for students
from Queensland and NSW. Students of the Queensland and NSW are the main participants
however year 12 school leavers from every corner of Australia. The article focuses on the
experiences of schoolies which is the event of school students that is known worldwide.
Goldcoast is a premier destination of Australia which is the reason schoolies is held
mostly in that region. The celebration of schoolies week is entirely covered within a span of
three weeks. The main participants of the event are the year 12 graduate students across the
entire nation. The first few days are only enjoyed by the students of two universities, Queensland
and NSW.
According to Dredge and Jamal (2013), since Goldcoast is one of the most popular
regions, the area is always busy with one attraction followed by another such as beaches,
sunshine, theme park and many more. It attracts 2.5 million visitors each year and often more
than that. The usual crowd that is noted mostly as visitors are the local students, families,
romantic couple, older adults as well as international tourists.
Schoolies.com offers various destinations in order to choose from for students that are
suitable to celebrate their celebration. The choice is made to mark their end of year 12 to party
hard as well as look for a more relaxing way to celebrate. Most of the students stay for seven
nights usually unless something else is stated. All the entertainments are available in the
destination only as per the dates mentioned. There are safety concerns and significance since it
is a festival for the young people the experienced schoolies operators take numerous safety
measures in order to protect them in the decided destinations. Several provisions of qualified and
licensed security guards in the areas that are inclusive of schoolies properties are taken as a

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priority. Also, individual participants of schoolies photo ID for building entry pass is mandatory
in order to maintain a record for each student (Schoolies.com, 2018).
However, according to Lubman et al. (2014), past records have shown that there have
been various issues that have occurred during this period. Students have shown unacceptable
behavior that was extremely inappropriate. Due to several records as such the holidaymakers are
unwilling to visit the place during this time letting many students enjoy Goldcoast with their
celebration.
Overall the prime motive is to enjoy with friends as it is the end of the school years and
beginning of another journey. The event is massive and therefore needs security and to some
extent a sense of carefulness. Apart from the concerns, the event is full of entertainment and
therefore it is a significant tourist attraction.

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References:
Dredge, D., & Jamal, T. (2013). Mobilities on the Gold Coast, Australia: Implications for
destination governance and sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(4),
557-579.
Lubman, D. I., Droste, N., Pennay, A., Hyder, S., & Miller, P. (2014). High rates of alcohol
consumption and related harm at schoolies week: a portal study. Australian and New
Zealand journal of public health, 38(6), 536-541.
Schoolies.com, 2018, What is Schoolies Week, retrieved from: https://www.schoolies.com/what-
is-schoolies.