John Menzies AM

Gold Coast tourism industry icon John Menzies AM has been inducted into the Gold Coast Business Hall of Fame.

Mr Menzies, who held leadership roles with the Gold Coast theme parks for 43 years before his retirement, was honoured for his business contribution to the city at the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards gala held at The Star on Saturday 2nd December.

The former competitive water skier started work on the Gold Coast as the marketing and PR manager for Keith Williams’ water ski attraction at The Spit. Mr Williams and Mr Menzies started a dolphin show to compete with their nearby rival Marine Land, moved a replica of the Endeavour to the site, built a lighthouse and a few other attractions. Sea World was started.

Mr Menzies was soon appointed Sea World general manager and was a driving force behind the expansion of Sea World and also developed the idea for the adjacent 400-room Sea World Nara Resort, which opened in 1988.

The tourism visionary also saw the potential for another theme park at Oxenford and co-ordinated the deal involving Sea World, Village Roadshow and Warner Bros that led to the development of Movie World. The deal also resulted in the inclusion of a third theme park, which became Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast.

In 1992, Mr Menzies became CEO for Movie World, Sea World, Sea World Aviation, Wet 'n' Wild and Sea World Nara Resort. He then developed the idea for the Australian Outback Spectacular, which opened in 2006.

After Village Roadshow bought out Warner Bros in 2006, Mr Menzies was promoted to Chairman of Village Roadshow Theme Parks in 2009. He retired in 2015 but remained on as a consultant until 2017.

 During his career Mr Menzies was a great supporter of community groups, particularly Surf Lifesaving, Flying Doctors, Gold Coast Community Fund and Make a Wish Foundation. He also established the Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation.

Mr Menzies has also served on the board of the Stockmen’s Hall of Fame, Tourism Queensland, Screen Queensland and the then-named Gold Coast Tourism Bureau.  Among his long list of achievements and awards, in 2019 he was presented with the Medal of the Order of Australia.