Gold Coast Danger Zone

[Mulboyne]

ABC: Japan issues travel warning for Gold Coast

Japan's Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory for Japanese visitors to Australia to beware of high rates of crime if they go to Queensland's Gold Coast. The warning on the Foreign Ministry's website draws particular attention to the dangers of staying in budget accommodation. The travel advisory lists a series of assaults and robberies on Japanese visitors to Surfers Paradise in February and March and warns that crime there is on the increase. It advises that it unsafe to leave valuables even in locked rooms. It also warns not to carry or display expensive band name products or clothing, always to remain vigilant, not to open a wallet in front of people and to keep a tight grip on hand and shoulder bags.

ABC: Japanese travel warning for Gold Coast 'unfair'

Daniel Gschwind from the Queensland Tourism Industry Council says it is a damaging message. "Clearly it's not helpful if a destination like the Gold Coast is singled out for that kind of attention," he said...Premier Peter Beattie, who is in Japan promoting Queensland tourism, says he is shocked. "I think there's been a mistake made, but we will try and clarify it, we will need to protect the Gold Coast's position and we will do that as quickly as we possibly can," he said.

[kurohinge1]

...
ABC: Japan issues travel warning for Gold Coast

Japan's Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory for Japanese visitors to Australia to beware of high rates of crime if they go to Queensland's Gold Coast. ... It also warns not to carry or display expensive band name products or clothing...

Cannery Row and Marshmallow Spike paraphernalia will make you safe

[Mulboyne]

ABC: Beattie does bit to address Gold Coast travel warning
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says he tried to change Japanese perceptions about Surfers Paradise before he left Tokyo on Friday. An advisory on Japan's Foreign Ministry website has listed assaults and robberies of Japanese tourists, and warns visitors crime is increasing. The managing director of Tourism Australia, who has also been in Tokyo, says the warning is routine and the issue was not raised by locals. Mr Beattie says he spoke to as many people as he could. "I can't say that I've convinced them, because I didn't get to talk to every one of the 127 million Japanese unfortunately, but I was invited to a function by the Emperor and the Empress, and there was a large number of ministers there - I've spoken to industry," he said.

[Mulboyne]

Courier-Mail: Japanese say sayonara
AUSTRALIA is pricing itself out of the lucrative Japanese tourism market, with the industry warning the bottom is falling out of the $2.4 billion sector. A confidential Japanese industry submission to the Senate Economics Committee reveals that Japanese bookings for the April-June quarter for holidays in Australia are down by between 30 and 40 per cent from last year. The strong Australian dollar, competition from other destinations, rising hotel prices and tour-guide wages are combining to make Australia uncompetitive. "In some cases, operators have made a decision to no longer promote Australia, but to sell destinations which are easier to market and offer more profitable returns," said the submission by the four big Japanese tourism operators in Australia, JALPAK, Kintetsu International Express, Nippon Travel Agency and JTB.
Warner Village Theme Parks marketing director Ken Minnikin agreed that the Japanese market was in trouble. "Our people have been in Japan recently and there are difficult times ahead," said Mr Minnikin, whose company runs major Gold Coast theme parks including Sea World and Movie World. He said factors included the lack of affordable flights to Australia and poor marketing. The percentage of foreign visitors to the theme parks who are Japanese has fallen from 30 in 1998 to 11 last year; the number of Japanese visitors to the Gold Coast over the same period declined from 369,290 to 202,323. The number who visited Australia last year fell by 1per cent from 2003 to 710,000, continuing a downward trend in recent years that the Japanese operators believe is accelerating. Their submission said Australia had for some time been more expensive than other popular destinations. For instance, while Cairns and Guam are considered similar destinations, Guam is half the price of Cairns.

[kurohinge1]

Courier-Mail: Japanese say sayonara
... For instance, while Cairns and Guam are considered similar destinations, Guam is half the price of Cairns.

Sell Sell Sell

Oz should sell Cairns now and buy two Guams instead.

[Taka-Okami]

Surfers "Paradise" is a shit hole. Basically, anyone who is unemployed goes to there and lives off welfare. Then to make things worse you have the Japanese there behaving very badly. Infact alot of the real locals are getting sick of the whole thing. Soon they wont need the tourist Yen from the Japanese as the Chinese are coming here in huge numbers. So good riddence if you ask me.

[Mulboyne]

The Age: Japanese travellers seek new sights

Kangaroos, koalas and the Gold Coast are no longer the must see attractions for Japanese travellers in Australia. And according to the host of a leading Japanese radio lifestyle program, Australian tourism marketing bodies are only now recognising the changing face of the Japanese traveller "...Japanese are nowadays experienced travellers, with a knowledge of English and well informed"...more...

[cliffy]

Sell Sell Sell

Oz should sell Cairns now and buy two Guams instead.

Fuck off,LOL, Cairns is now almost Back into local (AUS owned) hands again as the bankrupt Japanese companies sold up at a HUGE loss and the Tourist market is 1:7 ( Japanese:Other Asians) and booming as the new markets want more fun and less conspicuous(?) consumption. Meaning more value and spend with less waste and back handers, Bribes for the unaware.

[gomichild]

Um having been at the Gold Coast just last week I can confirm that there are still many, many tour groups of Japanese tourists being shuffled around to see koalas and kangaroos. As soon as we hit the wildlife sanctuary they went nuts over the koala enclosure.

And you know - that's cool. Tourists don't have to be sophisticated or whatever - as long as they have a good time who cares?

[Mulboyne]

The Age: We're old hat to Japanese

AUSTRALIA is no longer fashionable to Japanese tourists, and the industry needs to work together to "restore the Australian brand and refresh the product", a report to the Federal Government warns. The industry report, Embracing Change, by a taskforce chaired by Kerry Watson of the Marriott hotel chain, says Australia's attraction has been hit by a range of factors, including Japan's economic slump, and the emergence of China as a destination.

But the industry has responded the wrong way, it said, going downmarket and offering "traditional, mono-destinational and content-reduced" packages that do not represent the contemporary experiences Australia offers and Japanese customers want. "Tourism Australia research indicates the Australia brand lacks saliency, and does not have the badge value of some other destinations," it said. Japanese visitors face "major challenges" in trying to access low-cost flights within Australia. One in five now goes no further than Cairns.

The report urged Qantas to develop an "Aussie Airpass" product offering tourists two or three domestic flights for a set price. Japanese tourism to Australia has declined from a peak of 821,400 when the Asian financial crisis broke in 1997, to just 685,500 in 2005.

[cstaylor]

And you know - that's cool. Tourists don't have to be sophisticated or whatever - as long as they have a good time who cares?

Yeah, exactly. What do we look like when we visit a ryoukan, sumo, or some temple.

[Mulboyne]

ABC: Call for Gold Coast to get Japanese police liaison officer

A Japanese tourism consultant says the Gold Coast needs a Japanese police liaison officer (PLO). The Police Minister says the state's first Japanese PLO will work in Cairns. Gold Coast tourism consultant Kerry Watson says a Japanese speaking police officer proved the value of such a link when he worked in the city some years ago. "He was accepted very much by the tourism industry and also the tourists who were coming here and he certainly was very beneficial to solving problems and demonstrating to the Japanese our concern for the Japanese tourists."

[Mulboyne]

[kusai Jijii]

Surfers "Paradise" is a shit hole. Basically, anyone who is unemployed goes to there and lives off welfare. Then to make things worse you have the Japanese there behaving very badly. Infact alot of the real locals are getting sick of the whole thing. Soon they wont need the tourist Yen from the Japanese as the Chinese are coming here in huge numbers. So good riddence if you ask me.

Never a truer word has been spoken on these boards.
Surfers Paradise is indeed a SHIT HOLE. Its kinda like an Ozzie version of Nagoya.

[Mulboyne]

Cairns.com: He's a good boy, mum says

THE mother of a young man who viciously dragged a Japanese woman along the ground after grabbing her handbag described her son as a good boy who fell in with the wrong crowd. Susan Gibson, who embraced 18-year-old Ashley Benjamin Gibson outside Cairns District Court as he was released on parole after five months in custody, choked back tears as she described how her son had been taken from her care as a young boy and gone from foster home to foster home. "He's got a lot of potential, he just got caught up in the wrong crowd," Ms Gibson said. "He's not had any role models. I was the only one who could control him and he was taken off me."

She said the boy's father committed suicide when he was only eight and Child Safety Department officers had removed him and three other siblings from their Mooroobool home because of her excessive drinking. But she had been "shocked" at the violence of his attack on the Japanese woman, who had been walking near the Lagoon on the Esplanade with her mother about 7.40am on September 20 last year when Gibson lunged at her from behind. The court heard the 22-year-old tourist Sonoko Kato had to be treated for abrasions to her neck from where she had been choked by the bag strap as Gibson tried to grab it. She also suffered abrasions to her hip after falling on the ground from the force of his action, and being dragged 2m along the pavement. Judge Terence Martin said the five months already spent in prison waiting for the matter to come to court should be enough to give someone so young "a horrible fright". He sentenced Gibson to 15 months jail for the robbery with violence but released him on immediate parole.

[Sentakki Fried Chicken]

Never a truer word has been spoken on these boards.
Surfers Paradise is indeed a SHIT HOLE. Its kinda like an Ozzie version of Nagoya.

I'm not a great fan of Sufferer's Paradise, either...

[IkemenTommy]

Never a truer word has been spoken on these boards.
Surfers Paradise is indeed a SHIT HOLE. Its kinda like an Ozzie version of Nagoya.

Don't you live there?