eTN Asia/Pacific, 10-2-2006
Responding to a recent report related to several world heritage sites being taken off the tourism map, the Queensland Tourism Industry Council has rejected the opinion that suggests closing off most of the Great Barrier Reef to tourism.
The Council’s Daniel Gschwind says the Centre for Future Studies does not properly consider all the risks to the reef, including climate change and pollution.
On suggestion that a lottery system where a limited number of people could win visits to the reef each year, Gschwind felt the idea is absurd and has little scientific backing. “The lottery. . . would in fact cause more grief that good I’m sure so let’s stick with sound management practices, let’s stick with a management authority who can maintain and monitor what operators do,” he said. “And let’s stick with the cooperation that currently exists between commercial tourism operators on the reef and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.”
As per the information available, about 1.8 million people a year travel to the Reef, generating $5 billion.
In a report prepared for UK insurance company Churchill, the Center for Future Studies (CFS) had listed 10 popular destinations that could be either permanently closed or have a visitor cap within 15 years.
“I’m reasonably confident we’re going to see an increasing climate degradation that is going to impact on various places in the world with increasing severity,” CFS director Frank Shaw had said. “Floods, storms, droughts, increasing and erratic temperatures will combine to bring about changes in destination choice for tourists.”
