PASSIONATE, local business owner of Aquaduck, and long-time member of the tourism industry, Sarah Colgate is now on the quest to represent Gold Coast businesses on the Destination Gold Coast board.
Within the last 10 years, Mrs Colgate has successfully run a national business in iVenture Card Australia, a local startup in iToursntix and now the iconic Aquaduck.
The now-local Gold Coaster, started out in the tourism industry over 25 years ago, and believes now is the time to step up to the role.
“I started out working for a wholesale travel company, the biggest wholesale travel company in Australia at the time, which was called Creative Holidays,” Mrs Colgate said.
Following this, Mrs Colgate went on to work as a travel agent, before being employed by Accor Hotels Perth, and transferring to Brisbane.
“I started working on the Gold Coast late 2009, early 2010, where I had a partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland to set up the iVenture card in South East Queensland,” she said.
Mrs Colgate’s experience within the tourism and travel industry has given her expertise in marketing, distribution, and international and domestic markets.
However, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Mrs Colgate’s focus has been trying to convey the plight of Gold Coast tourism operators and the impacts border closures are having on livelihoods.
“Essentially, it has wiped out the tourism industry on the Gold Coast,” Mrs Colgate said.
“The Scenic Rim area isn’t doing too bad, basically because of the fact that there are lots of people doing weekends from Brisbane.
“Unfortunately, for the Gold Coast the biggest markets for the Gold Coast are tourists from Sydney and Melbourne. So, having Melbourne in lockdown and Sydney not able to come through border restrictions, that dramatically impacted the Gold Coast.
“Our [Aquaduck] business is 75 per cent down. We’re operating 3 days a week, and we’ve gone from 70 tours a week to 10.”
With most businesses in the same position or faring far worse, Mrs Colgate says she is nominating herself to represent those businesses on the Destination Gold Coast board to help push recovery from the impacts of COVID-19.
“Approximately 80 per cent of the DGC members are owner operators yet the DGC board doesn’t reflect this ratio,” Mrs Colgate said.
“There has not been a tourism owner operator on the DGC or Gold Coast Tourism board in nearly a decade. So, here I am changing that. I am giving owner operators, micro and small businesses a voice on the DGC board so we can better represent the members and the destination.”
