Dumping the official schoolies party leads to silver lining

But authorities cannot stop members of the public from booking a hotel and organising their own graduation celebrations, just as they did when schoolies was an ad hoc youth migration in the ’80s.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said unofficial schoolies bookings were providing a welcome boost to hotels and other tourism businesses after a tough year.

And Mr Gschwind said the love was being spread further afield, with the Sunshine Coast heavily booked for next week.

“I’m sure we’ll see more organised events in the future and in the meantime, I’m sure plenty of young people have enough enterprise and enough initiative to have a good time,” he said.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said school-leavers were…