[xr6st]

what a snowstorm

[dudders]

Yeah, what he said

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Gold Coast bloody near perfect!Daniel Meers

03Dec07

IT'S official - the Gold Coast is the most comfortable place to live in Australia with our weather beating all other states and most countries.

Sydney may think it has the world's attention, Melbourne may consider it has style, but the Gold Coast really is the best place to visit and live - and we have the proof.

A temperature comfort index released in PRD nationwide research gave the city an unprecedented 99 per cent rating which easily made the tourist capital the most comfortable city in Australia.

According to the index, the Gold Coast reached the ideal temperature for human comfort at 3pm each day 99 per cent of the time.

The astonishing figures, which lit up the faces of Gold Coast Tourism bosses and business identities yesterday, revealed:

* More than 825,000 international visitors descended on the city in the past year

* Almost six million domestic tourists made day trips here.

* Domestic holidaymakers spent a combined total of 15 million nights on the Gold Coast.

* Hotel occupancy rates have increased by 15 per cent.

With an aviation war between domestic and international air carriers just warming up, figures are set to increase even further in the coming year.

Little wonder the city is also the fastest growing place in Australia with about 18,000 new residents moving in each year.

Gold Coast Tourism chief executive officer Pavan Bhatia said the city always had the climate, now it had the business and marketing strategies to build on the assets.

"This is the turning point, we have turned the corner," he said.

"The best is yet to come, we're on track and in the right position.

"Tourism is our core business."

Mr Bhatia said strong local government funding and the peak body's ambitious but attainable five-year plan had given the area a backbone the Gold Coast never had.

"For the first time, after many years, we are seeing occupancy rates and spending on double-digit increases."

"Take the funding out and all this wouldn't exist," he said.

The index recorded temperatures at 3pm each day of the year with a range of 15C-27C regarded as the ideal temperature for human comfort.

On 99 per cent of the time the Gold Coast reached the ideal human comfort temperature.

The city was well ahead other parts of the country. Sydney hit the mark 81 per cent of the time, while Melbourne was at 57 per cent and Canberra at 47 per cent.

The Bulletin searched other major tourist destinations including Vanuatu, Rio de Janeiro and Honolulu, but their climate and humidity was not a patch on the Gold Coast's.

The lure of the Coast has hit a high note in Japan and New Zealand which led the international visitor charge, making up 24 per cent and 23 per cent of the international visitor numbers.

The tourism boom led to a 17 per cent increase in the number of nights local hotels were occupied.

The comfortable climate also helped contribute to a spending spree with a 27 per cent rise in the amount of takings per hotel room.

Mr Bhatia said Gold Coast tourism had stalled for a long while but the rise in spending showed the city was on an upward spiral.

Mayoral aspirant and leader of the 'I Love GC' ticket, Cr Rob Molhoek, said he always knew the city was the best in the world, but said the challenge was to have the infrastructure to cope with the growth.

"I don't need a PRD report to tell me that," said Cr Molhoek.

He said council now had the right vision in relation to infrastructure.

"For two or three decades there we kept underestimating the growth. We (council) have taken some giant leaps forward and need to continue and see it through."

Cr Molhoek agreed council's increase in funding for Gold Coast Tourism had played a big part. "Pavan has really got the organisation more focused."

The PRD report comes after a KPMG report confirmed the Gold Coast as the fastest growing city in Australia.

KPMG researcher Bernard Salt had previously said the city now relied on more than just the beach and would continue to offer more culturally diverse attractions.

"I think we'll start to see far more of that injection of urban sophistication ... you cannot build a city of more than half a million people on a single monoculture beach community," he said.

"You've got to have cultural zest."