Connecting Southern Gold Coast has just completed its survey of business conditions and outlook for the Southern Gold Coast region, which extends over the 8 villages from Currumbin Valley/Currumbin south to Coolangatta/Rainbow Bay. The survey was again conducted by The Centre for Independent Business research, a Gold Coast-based company.
The data that CIBR obtained on the region was sourced from its own research backed up by way of a telephone survey of a random selection of business owners and operators in the region in the last week of February 2009.
The survey found that there were approximately 2,000 businesses in the SGC, located as follows:
1. Currumbin/Currumbin Waters and Currumbin Valley: 840
2. Tugun/Bilinga: 320
3. Kirra-Coolangatta- Rainbow Bay: 840
Important key statistics reported were:
| Statistic | Detail | Comment |
| Head office of businesses being Residential address | 26.5% | |
| Service Providers as a percentage of all businesses | 66% | |
| Tourism Business | 29% | |
| Percentage of businesses using the Internet on a day to day basis | 80% | 60% reported that they expected to make on-line purchases during the year. |
| Percentage of business employing 2 or fewer full-time staff | 70% | Significantly more money was expected to be spent on staff training in the next year. |
| Percentage either holding constant or increasing staff levels over previous year | 85.1% | Approximately 50% of businesses did not have an enterprise objective of increasing the number of employees |
| Major source of competition to SGC businesses | Other Gold Coast businesses | There is an appreciable increase in the number of businesses expecting to invest in ‘other marketing’ initiatives in the next year. |
| Percentage of businesses with 100% of revenue being derived from Gold Coast | 60% | 50% of tourism businesses said that 50% of their revenue came from Gold Coast. |
| Main Enterprise Objectives of the owners | Business stability: 84%
High Productivity: 78% High Profit: 60% |
Respondents said that SGC needs to find ways to increase economic growth, attract more tourists, and better promote itself.
28% predicted a decrease in personal income in the next year. |
The Survey compared the movements in 5 key indicators between the same time in 2009 with 2010. A summary is as follows:
| Key Indicator | Comparative Year on Year Performance |
| Business Revenue Change | A reduction of more than 25%.
There were significant signs of optimism with a 33% increase in the number of businesses predicting an improvement in trading conditions .v. a 37 % decrease in the number of businesses predicting a deterioration in trading conditions. |
| Room Occupancy rate | Occupancies the Saturday night prior to the survey being held were constant at around 75-80%. They were slightly down for the day on which the survey was conducted. |
| Exporting Businesses | Still represent approx 5% of all businesses |
| Number and types of skills development courses conducted for local business | There was a belief that more could be done to run particular business training courses, although the number of business thinking this declined.
Suggested courses that could be run included developing bookkeeping skills; small business management; marketing training (particularly n-line); developing specific industry skills; and updating knowledge of legal/regulatory/taxation requirements. |
| Owner satisfaction with business growth and performance | There was only a slight decrease in the percentage of business owners and operators who felt mostly or very satisfied overall. |
