Wetlands Australia National Wetlands Update 2012
Issue No. 20, February 2012
ISSN 1446-4843
Active tourism - the key to achieving core wetland objectives at the Hunter Wetlands Centre Australia
Ken Conway, CEO Hunter Wetlands Centre Australia
World class wetlands
A group canoeing at the Hunter Wetlands Centre Australia (Anna Ryan)
The Hunter Estuary Wetlands are the only community owned and run Ramsar listed wetlands in Australia. The Hunter Wetlands Centre Australia is located in the estuary of the Hunter River, 10 kilometres from Newcastle City Centre. The wetlands' pinnacle of achievement to date is Ramsar listing in 2002. Before 1985 the 45 hectare site was used as sporting fields, a dump and for grazing. The centre has also achieved a number of tourism and education awards over the years.
The four pillars of our Strategic Plan are:
- Wetlands Conservation and Management – Promoting and demonstrating sustainable conservation and management of wetlands through community participation
- Education – Increasing and sharing our knowledge and understanding of wetlands and promoting the Ramsar convention
- Tourism and Recreation – Providing services and facilities to create a high quality and enjoyable experience for visitors that showcase wetland values & functions
- Governance – Develop corporate sustainability through ethical practice, achieving financial stability, and fostering community involvement.
Conflicting pillars
The first two pillars are not always easy bedfellows of the third, nor of achieving financial stability, one of the goals of the fourth pillar. From time to time this sets up challenges within the community based organisation responsible for ensuring survival of the wetlands.
The first 25 years involved a considerable focus on pillars 1 and 2. The centre has significant infrastructure including a visitor centre, an environmental education centre, tracks, bridges, bird hides and other infrastructure.
Tourism and recreation offer an important opportunity to raise funds to supplement membership income and the boom and bust cycle created by over-reliance on grant funds to enable conservation and education goals to be achieved.
Tourism and entertainment
A segway tour at the Hunter Wetlands Centre Australia (Anna Ryan)
Tourism is based on entertaining your customers successfully. In a high-speed society like ours, to keep the turnstiles ticking, attracting a number of different market segments simultaneously is the key to financial security. The younger generation is being brought up in an era where the environment is to be enjoyed by trail bike riding, mountain biking, 100 kilometre runs and adventure races.
Active versus passive tourism at Hunter Wetlands
Passive tourism at the Hunter Wetlands is epitomised in our previous motto which was “A Haven for Wildlife and People”. It implies a passive tourism defined by quite walks, bird watching and participation in education and conservation activities, and indeed has been the tourism focus in the first 26 years of existence.
Active tourism at the wetlands has historically been restricted to canoeing, occasional bike riding around designated tracks and an occasional bout of orienteering. Despite that, the founding members clearly recognised these activities were a way to attract additional revenue to the centre.
A new focus and motto
Our motto has recently changed to Conserve, Educate and Discover. The key driver of this is recognition of the fact that after 25 years the core passive focus, if continued, would most likely result in insolvency. The removal of the word “Haven” signals recognition of the need to change and innovate to attract more paying customers from new market segments to provide funds for maintaining our conservation and education pillars.
Key drivers of the change:
- the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) significantly depleted sponsorship and financial reserves built up from the sales of non-core land to developers in previous years
- the changing of the guard as the founding volunteers have aged and retired
- the cost of maintaining and funding an expanded infrastructure base, holding onto the environmental gains made and improving the education offer
- the post-GFC tightening of grant availability and sponsorship revenue streams.
Change in strategic focus toward active tourism
The Board and senior management met in January 2011 in response to financial imperatives and approved the pursuit of a more active tourism agenda. Segway tours and challenges were introduced. The corporate training market has been entered with offerings such as canoe challenges, Segway Olympics and mini adventure races including orienteering. We are also pursuing approvals for an adventure/educational ropes course for the site.
The aim of this is to attract a younger, more physically active market segment to fund the traditional pillars of conservation and education and ensure financial survival while showcasing wetland values and functions to new market segments. The changes made by the board will help achieve our conservation and education goals and ensure the ongoing viability of the Hunter Wetlands Centre.
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