Gold Coast visitor numbers up, but not due to bikie crackdown: tourism boss The Gold Coast appears set to break its tourism record, with 2013 figures expected to show visitor numbers as high as 12 million. But tourism bosses have scoffed at suggestions the Queensland government's crackdown on criminal bikie gangs has played a part in the tourism boom. While the state government's Tourism and Events Queensland is not due to release official figures for 2013 until March, Gold Coast Tourism Corporation chief executive Martin Winter said tourism numbers were up "across the board." "We're hoping that we might crack the 12 million visitor mark for the first time ever," he said. It would be a welcome record for the Gold Coast, which Mr Winter said had experienced a "fantastic first half" of summer. Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie's staff went to Twitter this week claiming partial credit for the upturn. "The Govt's criminal gang crackdown has contributed to Qld's best tourism figures in years," Mr Bleijie's staff tweeted from his official Twitter account. Mr Winter dismissed that assertion outright. "It's wrong to attribute any of it to the crackdown on bikie violence on the Gold Coast," he said. From our perspective, that's highly difficult to substantiate. There were four main reasons for the spike in numbers, Mr Winter said. It's really lining up the planets. The first one is the weather. We've had extremely good weather over this whole Christmas period. The second one is there's been a massive, unprecedented amount of marketing done in our key interstate markets of Sydney and Melbourne - there's been a $15 million campaign undertaken by the theme parks and we've spent around $13 million each year promoting the Gold Coast. The third thing is we're now seeing the impact of the Australian dollar - not so much from an increase in international visitors, because that only accounts for about 800,000 visitors a year - rather, it's the impact on the traditional market of families coming from the southern states that in the last three or four years had all chosen to take their kids to to Disneyland or Phuket for their big international holiday because it was incredibly good value. The other factor was historically low interest rates, which Mr Winter said left "fat in the budget" for holidaymakers. The Theme Park Capital campaign, paid for by the Gold Coast's rival theme parks, was singled out by Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson as a prime mover. "[It] has further propelled awareness of the Gold Coast and the vast array of attractions and experiences at Dreamworld coupled with competitive value," he said. Additionally, through contact with the airline industry and travel operators, we're hearing that good numbers have hit the Gold Coast. Darrin Davies, spokesman for Village Roadshow Theme Parks' portfolio of Sea World, Movie World, Wet 'n' Wild and the Outback Spectacular, said good weather was a contributing factor. New attractions such as the Storm Coaster and Henry the polar bear cub, helped, he said. "There is a very good mood in the economy from the visitors' perspective and the tourism perspective and I think it all plays a part in number one, the decision to come to the Gold Coast, and number two, to enjoy the best theme parks Australia and the world offers," he said.