The Commonwealth Games bonanza tipped to get the tills ringing on the Gold Coast has done anything but, with local businesses blaming a scare campaign by organisers for turning the city into a “ghost town”.

The event that was expected to deliver a massive economic boost to the region has instead resulted in empty streets, shopping centres and restaurants, with one Uber driver telling local radio station GOLD FM: “I drove through Cavill Ave [the main street of Surfers Paradise] and the only thing I could’ve hit was a seagull.”

After days of complaints and recriminations about a downturn caused by a “scare campaign” encouraging locals to take holidays or avoid driving around the Coast during the event, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Corporation Peter Beattie finally conceded they had gone overboard.

“I think we probably did [go too far] and I accept responsibility for that. That’s not the government, that’s me,” Mr Beattie told The Sunday Mail.

A hospitality operator who spoke to The New Daily on the condition of anonymity said he’d never seen business so quiet during an Easter holiday period, when the Gold Coast traditionally cashes in.

“Shopping centres that are normally chock-a-block are dead as a doornail,” he said. “Pacific Fair [at Broadbeach] is like a ghost town and [outlet shopping centre] Harbour Town, which is normally flat-out during the holidays, is extremely quiet.”

But the biggest hit has been for the hospitality sector, which geared up with extra staff and forward orders of stock, the source said.

“For hospitality, it’s been an absolute disaster. I’ve never seen it so quiet [for this time of the year],” he said.

Chief executive of the Gold Coast-based Small Business Association of Australia, Anne Nalder, blamed a massive “scare campaign” by Games organisers and the state government for the slump in what should be a golden time for local businesses.

“They had a huge billboard campaign telling people to stay away, to work from home, to take annual leave,” Ms Nalder said. “It really worked. If it was a Games event, they’d win a gold medal for it.”

Surfers Paradise has been particularly hard hit, Ms Nalder said, with one restaurateur claiming last Sunday’s trade was 60 per cent down on normal, while other traders are talking about a 30 to 40 per cent turnover slump in general.

Restaurateur Carlo Percuoco, founder of high-profile eatery Fellini at Main Beach, told News Corp it was the slowest Easter trading period in the restaurant’s 22-year history and he would join any class action to recoup losses caused by the alleged mishandling of the event.

Ms Nalder thought a class action was a “damn good idea” and said reports of government plan for a rescue marketing campaign to encourage people back to the Coast was “too little, too late”.

“There is still a real buzz around the city,” according to tourism boss Martin Winter. Photo: James Willoughby

Famous for flight

Anecdotally, many Coasters have heeded organisers’ advice and headed to northern New South Wales or the Sunshine Coast to avoid the supposed mayhem. Or even further afield.

One taxi driver said he had been “taking more people to the airport than from the airport before the Games”.

“It’s busy at the airport, but it’s people, locals, flying out, not in,” he said.

The hospitality source believed the Games had been held too close to Easter, which had stemmed the usual influx of visitors during the traditionally popular holiday period.

Destination Gold Coast chief executive Martin Winter said reports of flagging business on the Coast were a “storm in a teacup”, and that any slowdown was limited to parts of the Coast – those that weren’t hosting events.

“The reality is that we are at about 80 per cent occupancy across the [period of the] Games,” he said. “The properties that priced themselves at the top end of the market are certainly down a bit, but those that priced themselves competitively are doing well.”

Mr Winter said “mega events” such as the Games often fuel big expectations from local businesses, but the reality of major events is their impacts can be “patchy across the city” in question.

“No doubt a lot of locals left town to go somewhere else, which has impacts on local trade … but there is still a real buzz around the city.”