Sustainable Tourism

Family enjoying the reef Photo: FantaSea

Tourism is a major contributor to the economy of north and far north Queensland. It is predicted that tourism will continue to grow in size and importance. The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) is a major resource for the tourism industry as well as a major recreational setting for local residents.

The sustainability of Great Barrier Reef (GBR) tourism and recreation is based on quality and continuity. A quality experience must be provided for visitors, while improving the quality of life of the host community and protecting the quality of the environment. For sustainability, the tourism industry must also ensure the continuity of the natural resources it uses and continuity of visitor interest.

Given the importance of the GBR for tourism and recreation, CRC Reef is investigating tourist and recreational use of the GBR to support the management of visitors to the GBRWHA. Two sets of questions are addressed in our research.

1. Improving the quality of the visitor's experience and maintaining visitor interest.

We are seeking to establish who visits the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), what they expect, how they make decisions and what they think of the quality of the experiences currently available.

2. Visitor behaviours and expectations to inform the management of visitor impacts.

We are looking at visitor knowledge of the GBR and possible threats to quality, visitor understanding of their own impacts on the GBR and the factors that contribute to patterns of visitation and participation in reef activities.

This project consists of a series of sociological and psychological studies of reef visitors which together provide information on this aspect of human use of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA).

For a list of current CRC Reef research on sustainable tourism, click here

For a list of previous CRC Reef research on sustainable tourism, click here

For a list of CRC Reef publications on sustainable tourism, click here

Protecting the Great Barrier Reef’s Tourism Future was the subject of a one-day forum as part of the Tourism Futures conference on the Sunshine Coast in July 2003. The forum included representatives from the tourism industry, Commonwealth and Queensland government departments and research agencies.
To see a pdf document on the outcomes of this forum click here

Contact the Tourism Research Team
If you have a question or would like more information, please contact us (Note: most of our research publications can be downloaded from the website).

Tourism Program - CRC Reef Research
School of Business
James Cook University
Townsville QLD 4811
Australia

Email: tourism.research@jcu.edu.au