Secretary of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
Robyn Kruk AM
Developing tourism destinations through National Landscapes
Tourism & Transport Forum Leaders' Summit, Canberra
8 September 2009
I want to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunnawal people; to custodians past and present.
Ministers and Members of Parliament, members of the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF), ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to represent the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, the Hon Peter Garrett AM today.
Indigenous art and culture and the Australian landscape are sought out by people from around the world.
Nature-based and cultural experience tourism provides significant benefits to Australia's economy, often in regional and remote areas.
It also provides significant opportunities for us to forge important partnerships with industry, and with state and local government because of the shared goals we have in protecting, showcasing and capitalising on our natural and cultural assets.
Nature-based tourism - contribution to the economy
The natural environment is a key motivator for international visitors to travel to Australia. Fifty-six per cent are influenced to visit based on their intent to experience or visit a natural area. Indigenous culture is also an important attractor for some market segments1.
Two thirds of international visitors participate in one or more nature activities during their visit. Visiting National/State parks is the most popular activity for international and domestic visitors alike2. Even in the global economic downturn, with falling numbers of international visitors, international nature-based visitors are hugely valuable to the Australian economy.
Visitor results from the March quarter 2009 show that over 900,000 international nature-based visitors injected more into the Australian economy than 3.2 million domestic visitors. Visitor numbers may be down yet their length of stay and expenditure increased3.
National Landscapes
The National Landscapes program seeks to capitalise on the tendency of these visitors to stay longer and spend more.
As most of you will be aware, 'National Landscapes' is a joint Parks Australia - Tourism Australia initiative. It centres on the selection and promotion of Australia's absolute top 20 natural and cultural experiences to Tourism Australia's international target market - the 'experience seeker'.
The Tourism and Transport Forum paper that is the subject of discussion for this forum - the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy - Industry Priorities for the Australian Government - highlights the National Landscapes program as an example of a successful policy model.
The National Landscapes program is helping regions develop the supply side of the industry through branding strategies and tourism master plans to focus and guide sustainable tourism development, with demand side promotional support through Tourism Australia's international marketing channels.
The master planning process helps plan tourism development and associated infrastructure relevant to the international market, for both public and private sector investors. Required infrastructure may include road links, an airport up-grade, water supply, sewerage or energy supply. It may be services, business opportunities or partnerships that can assemble or link a suite of visitor experiences, or develop new experiences.
National Landscapes therefore provide a mechanism to focus public planning and infrastructure around the environment, involving tourism operators, all levels of government and the community in future planning; and opening doors to strategic alliances.
There are now nine National Landscapes, with the addition of Kangaroo Island in June this year. And many more regions have expressed interest in joining the program.
At this Summit last year, it was suggested that the Australian Alps National Landscape be selected as a pilot project to deliver a tourism master plan which may act as a model for other Landscapes. I am please to report this project is well underway, with the draft plan due to be released for public comment later this month. This is with thanks to the partnership support of the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.
Adding to this achievement, significant headway has been made with the master plans for Australia's Coastal Wilderness, Kakadu, and Australia's Green Cauldron, a crater formed by a now extinct volcano that stretches from Byron Bay to the Gold Coast, and west towards the Great Dividing Range. I must point out to you that National Landscapes has no dedicated budget. The huge progress we have made so far shows what can be achieved by the power of a good idea and by mobilising partnerships at all levels.
As a locally driven initiative, we expect master planning to be supported locally. The program needs strong regional engagement and cooperative management between tourism, conservation and government stakeholders. And this has already proved successful. In the Australian Coastal Wilderness and in the Australian Alps stakeholders have raised the funds for joint projects.
The Coastal Wilderness have self funded the development of their Tourism Master Plan while the Australian Alps raised in excess of $200,000 to produce an Australian Geographic DVD of the landscape which aired on commercial television in January this year.
National Landscapes are also a mechanism to focus government programs to enable limited resources to be targeted to those initiatives that will make a difference in the national interest.
In the Flinders Ranges, the SA Department of Health is implementing their Building Healthy Communities initiative with support for arts program in the remote Copley community. National Landscapes opened the opportunity for a cultural tourism enterprise to increase the viability of the arts centre. The community are being mentored in engagement with tourists and on the development of a strategic business plan.
Uluru Plan of Management
Uluru is a key destination within the Red Centre National Landscape. The public comment period for the draft management plan for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park closed last Friday. The controversial issue of the potential closure of the Uluru climb has sparked an enormous response - some 180 submissions. We normally receive only a handful. The park, like much of Australia, is faced with steadily declining visitor numbers.
Much work is already being undertaken to address this. I think you will all be stunned by our new viewing area - Talinguru Nyakunytjaku. We expect to open this early next month in a part of the park not previously open to the public. This is a $20 million investment by the Australian Government in this most famous of our national icons.
Uluru as a part of the Red Centre Landscape provides opportunities for the park to be presented in a much wider context than as an island in the landscape, and to plan for conservation and tourism at a wider regional scale.
However, major obstacles still need to be overcome, including capacity building and skills development. To help address this, the Australian Government has established an Interdepartmental Working Group to bring a more coordinated approach to these issues in this region, as well as to leverage support for action across relevant portfolios. The aim is to see how the government can help improve the diversity and richness of the tourism product offering in the region and in particular provide greater opportunities for Indigenous business development and employment.
Great Barrier Reef
Some of you may have seen the media coverage last week around the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report. While the report says that the long-term outlook for the reef is poor, its current condition is good and it is still one of the healthiest and most beautiful coral reef ecosystems in the world.
This is largely due to world's best practice management and the strong partnership between government and the tourism industry.
In 2006-07 Great Barrier Reef tourism contributed $5.1 billion to the Australian economy. In the same year, 54 000 full time positions across all industries were derived from the Great Barrier Reef - 92.7 per cent of these were employed in tourism.
Around two million tourism visits are made to the reef each year and almost three million additional people are transported by the tourism fleet to visit islands throughout the Great Barrier Reef region.
But the reef is at a crossroad and the single biggest threat facing it is climate change.
The health of the reef tourism industry is inextricably linked to the health of the Great Barrier Reef. The intimate connection between marine tourism and the natural environment means the reef tourism industry will face serious climate change challenges.
In response to this the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority recently released the Great Barrier Reef Tourism Climate Change Action Strategy.
The strategy has resulted from a strong and collaborative partnership between the government, the marine tourism industry and representative agencies and it is testament to the level of commitment of that partnership. The strategy translates the recommendations generated through a series of industry leader and operator workshops into a strategic program of action.
It encourages the industry and government to look at new and emerging technology and research for ways to reduce emissions and protect infrastructure and high value reef sites from the impacts of climate change. It suggests operators identify responsive business strategies that can be employed to reduce the impacts from a changing climate on both the reef and the tourism industry.
The strategy will stimulate a range of actions, from site enhancement activities to adaptive management, from marine tourism staff training, to risk management planning, led by both government and industry.
As challenging as the outlook is, there is one message that is quite clear: the need for 'grass roots' involvement in planning and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Antarctica
Antarctica is also becoming and increasingly popular nature based tourism destination.
More than 37,000 tourists visited Antarctica last financial year. Of those, more than 3,000 Australians journeyed to the Antarctic Peninsula region, many transported by one of the 17 or so Australian Antarctic tourism operators.
Although relatively few visitors travel to Australia's Antarctic Territory - the famous huts established at Cape Denison in 1911 by Sir Douglas Mawson are the most frequently visited site, and receive a few hundred visitors annually.
We work with other countries that have a presence in the region under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and with tourism operators to ensure the protection of the fragile environment and the safety of visitors.
Cultural and heritage tourism
Heritage and cultural tourism is amongst the few growth markets in the Australian tourism industry.
Expenditure by international cultural & heritage visitors totalled $3.7 billion, an increase of 12.7 per cent on March quarter 2008.
Visitation to Australia's World Heritage areas, for example, contributes significantly to economic activity at a national, state and regional level. Recent studies found that World heritage areas alone contributed over $12 billion annually to the Australian economy and employed over 120,000 people.
The Australian Alps, a National Landscape and currently under assessment for National Heritage Listing, contributes around $320 million a year to the tourism industry.
Following the Leadership Summit last year, we partnered with the TTF on the establishment of the Cultural and Heritage Tourism Taskforce which informed the Jackson Report.
In addition my department has also established a Heritage Working Group, which includes experts in tourism, economics and heritage, to help identify ways to build greater community awareness of the value of these assets. This group will specifically advise the Minister on strategies to increase the economic and social benefits of heritage, particularly through tourism. Our ability to continue to reap those benefits will be dependent the ongoing protection of Australia's heritage and cultural places.
EPBC Act review
We are also conscious of the importance that this protection occurs in a manner that is streamlined and harmonious at all the levels of government.
To put the department's role in regulating development into context, from January 2007 to June 2009, of the 417 major development proposals put forward in New South Wales, we had an interest in 130 (31 per cent) of the proposals but only 17 (4 per cent of the total 417) of those were required to go through a full assessment process. The other 113 that were referred to us were either declared "not controlled actions" or given a quick approval known as a "particular manner" approval, within 20 working days.
I understand from the discussion paper that there is an appetite from industry for a review by COAG of regulation, planning and approval of tourism development of freehold and crown land, and heritage assets. We recognise that duplicative planning and approvals processes at the Commonwealth and state level can have an adverse impact on productivity.
To streamline the processes, the Australian Government has entered into bilateral agreements with all states and territories to ensure their requirements and those of the Australian Government can be dealt with in one environmental impact assessment process. The last of these agreements were finalised as of the middle of this year. This has been a significant achievement which will reduce the regulatory burden to tourism and other businesses.
The Minister has also commissioned an independent review into the Commonwealth's environmental assessment legislation, to be guided by, amongst other things, the government's deregulation agenda to reduce and simplify the regulatory burden on people, businesses and organisations, while maintaining appropriate and efficient environmental standards. The report, under the guidance of Dr Allan Hawke, will be presented to the Minister by the end of October this year.
Conclusion
National Landscapes is not about mass tourism, it is about providing opportunities for visitors to truly experience the best our environment and culture can offer. It is about immersion, understanding and appreciation - increasing length of stay and regional expenditure.
This ties in with a primary objective of the National Long-Term Tourism strategy - to maximise economic benefits through tourism. It is also about protecting our assets, developing regions, and supporting access to those economic benefits by the local and regional communities.
A clear strength of National Landscapes, and in our other work with industry, state and local government on our national assets is the cooperative and integrated approach to both planning and managing these tourism assets. There are obvious benefits in working together to meet our common goals to ensure the long-term sustainability of the tourism market for our assets.
Benefits for this portfolio include the enhanced role of protected areas in national and regional economies. Planning and effective management deliver better conservation outcomes. Greater appreciation of the significance of our natural assets stimulates interest in their protection.
There are also flow on benefits from leveraged funding, and from improved opportunities for regional communities and for Indigenous people.
Once the Long-Term National Tourism Strategy has been finalised, I look forward to liaising with stakeholders to identify how we can work together in our sector to identify opportunities to develop sustainable and appropriate tourism opportunities.
ENDS
1 2008 Nature-based Tourism Snapshot, Tourism Research Australia
2 2008 Nature-based Tourism Snapshot, Tourism Research Australia
3TTF Tourism Statistics, nature-based visitor market, March Quarter 2009
Media contacts
Public Affairs Section
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
Phone: +61 2 6275 9248
Fax: +61 2 6274 1094
public.affairs@
environment.gov.au
Before you download
Most publications are available as PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF files.
If you are unable to access a publication, please contact us to organise a suitable alternative format.
Key
Links to another web site
Opens a pop-up window