This weekend’s inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 was an exciting addition to the Sunshine Coast’s expanding calendar of sporting events. I was delighted to help welcome almost 2,000 athletes from around the world to Mooloolaba for the region’s first IRONMAN event on Sunday 15th September.
The region’s growing reputation as a great location for sporting events is a welcome boost to the Coast’s tourism industry with fantastic flow-on benefits to the local economy.
The event follows on from the huge success of last month’s Sunshine Coast Marathon and has boosted visitor numbers prior to the start of the busy school holiday period.
This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our region’s stunning scenery, clear waters and healthy lifestyle to visitors from across the globe. Major events like this demonstrate our ability to host high-quality international sporting festivals and puts the Sunshine Coast on the world tourism map.
I am grateful to Tourism and Events Queensland for their help in securing events like this as part of the Queensland Government’s goal to double the annual overnight visitor expenditure from $15 billion to $30 billion by 2020.
