The Gold Coast, situated in the state of Queensland, secured the right to stage the Games when it defeated sole rival Hambantota of Sri Lanka by 43 votes to 27 at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly in St Kitts and Nevis last year.

Although preparations are still at an early stage in the area (pictured above, artist's impression), experienced property developer Chamier said the construction process for the event will create thousands of jobs while the economic value for the city and the country would be huge.

"The positive economic impact of the Games is estimated to be $2 billion (£1.31 billion/€1.65 billion) with the development and upgrading of key infrastructure, including the Health and Knowledge Precinct and venues," he said.

"The development of the precinct, which will incorporate the Games Village, will create hundreds of jobs each year during construction.

"In the long term, the precinct will generate thousands of permanent jobs in the health, knowledge, innovation and service sectors, contributing to the diversification of the region's economy and reducing a reliance on tourism.

Nigel Chamier (far right) is predicting an economic boom for Gold Coast on the back of the 2018 Commonwealth Games

"So this is a very exciting time for the Gold Coast, Queensland and Australia."

Chamier also emphasised the scale of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which Australia last hosted in Melbourne six years ago.

"There will be 6,500 athletes and 1,000 technical officials attending the Games," he said.

"There will be more than 20 competition venues and 40 training venues with over 500 TV cameras focused on the event for 1,000 hours of live broadcast coverage for a 1.5 billion global TV audience.

"Throughout the Games, a media contingent made up of more than 3,000 photographers and journalists will deliver close to 100,000 media stories and we will expect in the vicinity of 86 million website page views.

"There will be approximately 1.5 million tickets to Games events.

"So this is big – and in fact will be the biggest event Australia will see in the next decade."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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