The Gold Coast are in a two-horse race to win the right to host the 2018 event where they face Hambantota of Sri Lanka.

The 71 votes from the Commonwealth countries and territories will ultimately decide where the event is held when they each vote at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly in St Kitts and Nevis on November 11 this year.

The European and Canadian delegations that have arrived in the Gold Coast could play a key factor in deciding where the 2018 competition is staged with Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar able to cast 11 votes between them.

"The sun is shining, the surf is good and I know the Gold Coast will be putting its best foot forward this week," said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

"The delegates will be shown the best the coast has to offer and I am confident they'll love the city just as much as I do."

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bid chairman Mark Stockwell said that the visit is particularly important for the Australian city as the delegation includes representatives with close associations to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2011 Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games, the London 2012 Summer Olympics and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

"The delegates visiting the city across all regional visits really know what they are looking for and bring to the Coast a wealth of experience," said Stockwell.

"We are anticipating and prepared for lots of question but we will also be looking to learn from them and will be taking their feedback on board.

"We will follow a similar programme to previous visits kick-starting with a Skypoint experience where we will present on our sports and venues.

"It's a great vantage point to start as we can actually point out the majority of locations and they will get a good idea of proximity of proposed venues to accommodation and the Games Village location."

Gold Coast 2018 Bid Business and Community Consultative Committee chair Andrew Bell added that his committee was looking forward to the visit as they will provide support to the bid team and give delegates an insight into the city's business infrastructure.

"The delegates thus far have been genuinely interested in how our city operates and I have had some very interesting discussions with many of them during recent visits," said Bell.

"The committee has been working very hard to spread the bid message amongst our own networks and we assist at a variety of delegate functions so our visitors are exposed to a broad cross section of the community and can really appreciate our collective enthusiasm for a potential Games on the Gold Coast."

Hambantota are currently being visited by the African Commonwealth delegation – who visited the Gold Coast last month – while the Sri Lankan city will welcome the delegations from Europe and Oceania next month before a visit from the Asian delegation in October.

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