Supporting regional economies
As well as conserving our biodiversity, the National Reserve System's protected areas have significant economic and social benefits.
The reserves not only create direct local jobs in land management, but also support businesses in rural areas by buying goods and contract services locally. In remote Australia, Indigenous Protected Areas are a powerful driver of economic development, providing communities with meaningful jobs looking after country and measurable benefits in health, education and social cohesion.
Australia's national parks and reserves are drivers of national and international tourism, attracting millions of visitors every year and generating billions of dollars for the Australian economy.
Protected areas offer visitors experiences that are uniquely Australian, such as camping, bushwalking, river cruises, educational camps, wildlife tours and engagement with Indigenous culture. For many regional economies, tourism brings much needed jobs and a new cashflow to local businesses.
Many new non-government reserves are finding new business opportunities in ecotourism.
Quick facts
- Australia's tourism industry is worth $81 billion a year - a bigger earner than the beef, aluminium and natural gas industries combined. (The Australian Tourism Satellite Account Fact Sheet , Department of Industry Tourism and Resources, May 2007)
- 100 million people visit Australian parks and reserves each year (Graeme Worboys, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, unpublished data presented to WA Parks and Protected Areas Forum, September 2007.)
- Forty seven cents in each tourism dollar is spent outside our capital cities (Australia's Tourism Industry Fact Sheet , Department of Industry Tourism and Resources, July 2007)
- Domestic overnight visitors spent almost $10 billion in 2005 on nature based activities (Snapshots, Tourism Research Australia , 2006)
- Domestic day visitors taking part in nature-based activities spent $1.2 billion in 2005 (Snapshots, Tourism Research Australia , 2006)
- In regional Australia, tourism accounts for 9.6 per cent of total employment and more than 200,000 jobs (DITR Tourism Facts & Figures at a Glance October 2006)
- The number of international tourists seeking nature-based activities rose from 2.8 million in 2002 to 3.4 million in 2005 (Snapshots, Tourism Research Australia , 2006)
- 68 per cent of all international visitors take part in nature-based activities during their stay. (Snapshots, Tourism Research Australia , 2006)
- In 2005, international tourists contributed $9.3 billion to the national economy. (Snapshots, Tourism Research Australia , 2006)
- Around 16.2 million people visit Queensland's national parks each year, spending more than $1.5 billion (Queensland EPA, unpublished data, September 2007 and J C Eono and S Driml Expenditure by visitors to QPWS Managed Areas in Queensland 2005)
- Visitors to Queensland's national parks support more than 6,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs (Driml S and Common M (1997) Economic and Financial Benefits of Tourism in major Protected Areas. Australian Journal of Environmental Management 2(2), 19-39.
- For every $1 of government funding invested in protected area management, more than $40 worth of economic activity is generated in the Queensland economy (Bringing ecological economics out of the wilderness . Sally M Driml, Ecological Economics Volume 23, Issue 2 , November 1997, pages 145-153)
- In Western NSW, three parks - Sturt National Park, Kinchega National Park and Mutawintji National Park - generated $9.6 million a year to the local economy (NSW NPWS (2001) The Contribution of Sturt National Park, Kinchega National Park and Mutawintji National Park to Regional Economic Development. NPWS Environmental Economic Series, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney.)
- In Tasmania, parks were worth $140 million to the state economy in 1998-99 (Madden, JR, Thapa, PJ, Giesecke, JAD (2000) The Contribution of the Parks and Wildlife Service's Estate to the Tasmanian Economy in 1998/99, Department of Primary Industry Water and Environment.)
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