Nature-based Tourism to Provide a Lifeline For Parks

TTF Australia’s Natural Tourism Partnerships Action Plan was launched yesterday at the National Tourism and Transport Climate Change Forum in Sydney by Federal Small Business and Tourism Minister Fran Bailey.

According to peak tourism group TTF Australia (Tourism & Transport Forum), with  climate change bringing new challenges to the health of Australia’s national parks, nature-based tourism would provide park managers with a vital financial lifeline,

TTF Australia Managing Director Christopher Brown said yesterday that Australia had fallen behind other countries in the development of nature-based tourism experiences, and in marketing those experiences to potential visitors, adding, “We need to forge a new partnership between the tourism industry, tourism authorities, park managers and the conservation sector.”

“Through this partnership, we can reduce red tape and encourage investment in better facilities and new visitor experiences.”  “We can make better use the private sector to provide non-core services in parks, freeing up park staff to focus on conservation activities.”

He said, “And we can use tourism to provide a new source of revenue for park conservation and research activities.”

Mr Brown also said that responsible, nature-based tourism brought economic and social benefits to regional communities, while also helping to achieve conservation outcomes, adding, “In South Africa, revenue from sustainable tourism in national parks supports 75% of the cost of running and maintaining those parks, with this revenue stream providing new employment opportunities for many disadvantaged communities, and also allowing park managers to increase the amount of land under protection by 5% in the past 10 years.”

He said, “Closer to home, the BleachWatch program in the Great Barrier Reef brings tourism operators into the front line of efforts to save the reef from coral bleaching and in Victoria, the Brambuk tourism precinct in the Grampians National Park has been established to provide employment opportunities for the local Koori community, while promoting greater understanding of aboriginal culture and reconciliation.”

Mr Brown said TTF Australia had worked with Federal, State and Territory Governments, the tourism industry and the conservation sector to develop the Action Plan, with key findings of the Action Plan including:

** Around 10.5 million domestic visitors and 2.4 million international visitors to Australia’s national parks in 2006;

** Australia’s nature-based tourism sector is worth around $23 billion, however relatively little of this flows through to park conservation;

** New, innovative park visitor experiences are needed to ensure Australia stays competitive with other destinations such as New Zealand, South Africa and North America;

** There is a lack of coordination between governments and tourism conservation agencies on tourism planning and marketing for parks;** Park agencies lack sufficient funding for increasing conservation, climate change adaptation and visitor management costs;

** Private sector investors are interested in investing in and operating park infrastructure, visitor experiences and conservation services through Natural Tourism Partnerships;

** Assessment and approval processes can be a major barrier to investment through time delays and changing approval requirements;

** Current lease and licensing regimes in parks encourage landlord-tenant relationships, rather than risk and revenue sharing partnerships between park agencies and the private sector;

** Visitor entrance and usage fees provide a valid source of revenue for conservation in most park system and can provide a visitor management tool; and

** More effective marketing strategies are needed to market park tourism visitor experiences, build tourism revenue for parks and manage visitation.

TTF Australia’s Natural Tourism Partnerships Action Plan is available at www.ttf.org.au.

Report by The Mole from the National Tourism and Transport Climate Change Forum