Once a titan of tourism, can the Gold Coast's highway motel survive development?
Once a staple of the Australian driving holiday, the Gold Coast highway motel is disappearing, leaving only nostalgia and memories of a bygone era.
But while some renovated retro motels thrive, their prime location along this iconic coastline makes them a tempting prospect for developers. "I think there may only be a handful left in 10 or 20 years," former Gold Coast City Council strategic planner Tory Jones said."While we might lament the loss of these places, at the end of the day the prevailing sentiment of the Gold Coast favours change over heritage conservation."Ms Jones has been studying the history of highway motels on the Gold Coast since the late 1990s.
She said the motels began to"pop up everywhere", advertising air conditioning and colour TV as family road trips gained popularity in the 1950s.
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