MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record bikini parade in Australia’s Gold Coast becomes instant success

Bikinis and more bikinis, priceless advertising for Australian beaches

A successful Guinness World Record attempt for the longest bikini parade has turned into priceless advertising for Australia’s Gold Coast, admit city officials.

Gold Coast Tourism chief executive Martin Winter said the parade with 357 bikini-clad women Saturday is the kind of promotion the area's struggling business and tourism sectors need, the Gold Coast Bulletin in Molendinar, Queensland, reported.

“It reinforces the kind of fun and attractive culture the Gold Coast is famous for,” he said. “We heavily promoted the event through our media and social media networks because this appeals to the sort of people we are looking to get to the Gold Coast. All these images of fun, sun, sand and our beaches is something that connects with people on a lot of levels.”

On Twitter, BikiniParade ranked among topic discussion topics in Queensland and the event was highly televised.

“With this event it is the greatest piece if destination marketing I have seen in a long time,” said Surfers Paradise Alliance chief executive Mike Winlaw. “The overall publicity will see a lot of people take another look at what the Gold Coast has got and come back for, hopefully, a long stay.”

Australian live national television broadcasts and fevered social media interest surrounding the successful Guinness World Record longest bikini parade.

Surfers Paradise councillor Susie Douglas said she tipped the Cayman Islands, who formerly held the title, would challenge the new record. I think it could easily become an annual event if it keeps getting broken,“ she said.

”It shows off that we have beautiful beaches, we've got a great foreshore, healthy young women and a sense of fun”, emphasized Ms Douglas.