Organisers of the Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon have hit the ground running this morning after announcing that entries for the 2021 event will open at 9:00 am on Monday 15 February.
While celebrating the return of Australia’s most popular holiday marathon event for its 42nd edition, the announcement provides a welcome boost to Queensland’s major event and tourism economies.
City of Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said he is thrilled to see the event back after the coronavirus-driven loss of the 2020 edition of the IAAF Gold Label marathon saw the Gold Coast miss out on millions of dollars in economic impact.
The value of this event to the Gold Coast cannot be underestimated. Every winter for over 40 years, the marathon and associated events have enticed thousands upon thousands of interstate and overseas visitors to escape to the Gold Coast from their colder home climates for an unmatched sports holiday experience. While we will miss our international runners this year, by staging a successful event in July the Gold Coast will showcase to the world we are again open for major events business.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks General Manager of Marketing Renee supported today’s announcement.
“Village Roadshow Theme Parks is proud to support this iconic event as naming rights sponsor,” Ms Souter said.
“The event showcases the Gold Coast like no other and with the numbers of visitors this event attracts each year, I know just how important the marathon and other major events are to the Gold Coast’s tourism economy.
“When the runners and their families come to the Gold Coast they stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, shop in our shopping centres, and of course visit our theme parks.
“The team at Village Roadshow Theme Parks are right behind the marathon weekend and I call on other Gold Coast businesses and our community to get behind this time-honoured and iconic event,” she said.
Gold Coast Events Management CEO Cameron Hart acknowledged the challenges of planning events under COVID-safe health regulations.
“We have seen other smaller events adapting to the ‘new normal’ of event delivery with tight health regulations, social distancing and other responsible management measures,” Mr Hart said.
“Subsequently we have developed extensive plans to balance all the health regulations while providing a world class running experience on course,” he said.
Mr Hart said several crowd management initiatives will be implemented this year.
“This year we have moved the ASICS Half Marathon from the Sunday to the Saturday to spread our crowd more evenly and we’ve cancelled the usual pre-race check-in centre and expo in favour of mailing out race kits.
“We have also implemented wave race starts, and we’ll be providing personal protection equipment to the runners.
“Our priority this year is to deliver a positive running experience for our recreational and elite runners upon which we will rebuild a solid foundation to grow the event beyond pre-COVID levels in the future,” he said.
The 2021 Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon will be run on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 July.
The event, with revised race day schedules and modified courses, will start and finish at the spectacular Broadwater Parklands.
For further information on the event including updates, programming and registrations, visit the Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon website.
The 2021 Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon is proudly supported by Major Events Gold Coast.