GOLD Coast City Council plans to spend millions more on its tourism industry in an effort to lure the travel dollar.

The council announced in a budget sweetener it will give Gold Coast Tourism $11.4 million each year for the next five years, plus an additional $2.5 million for new growth initiatives.

The boost came as the Department of Infrastructure yesterday announced a drop in the number of flights to Gold Coast Airport.

Mayor Ron Clarke said he was not concerned by the report.

“These statistics are seasonal,” Cr Clarke said.

“It's the charter flights that are helping us out. Those numbers reflect in special events.”

According to the report there were significant drops in March, compared to the same period last year.

It showed flights were down to the Gold Coast from its three biggest markets – Sydney and Melbourne with 5% drops and Adelaide with a more than 30% drop.

Another worrying sign was the fall in passenger numbers for Gold Coast Airport, from 400,600 in March last year to 373,200 in 2011, a decline of almost 7%.

Gold Coast Tourism director of communications Ben Pole said the additional funding was for seven new initiatives to get visitors spending more.

Mr Pole said while the report on passenger numbers was a marker of the health of tourism on the Gold Coast, he couldn't comment specifically on the report's numbers.

“We know the visitor numbers to the Gold Coast were down in the first quarter of this year,” Mr Pole said.

“This is an unfortunate outcome of what happen (natural disasters) in January/February this year, despite all the good work done by Gold Coast Tourism and other organisations,” he said.

“The Easter period for the Gold Coast was above par. This gives us much more positive momentum into the half-year.

Cr Clarke said the figures would “rebound”.He said this funding was a massive boost in confidence in what the tourism board was doing and in its future initiatives.

“We are very happy with the performance of the current board,” he said.

The council will release the details of its 2011 Budget on June 28.

Gold Coast Airport failed to return the Daily News' calls yesterday.