The coronavirus crisis has turned Australian life on its head and made what seemed impossible the new normal … and there are some who think this presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset our tourism industry.
As debates continue about how and when to open Australia’s state and territory borders, global tourism expert Professor Marianna Sigala from the University of South Australia says things don’t have to eventually go back to the way they were.
“There’s no doubt Australia’s tourism sector is suffering – we started the year in recovery following the devastating bushfires and then, before operators were even back on their feet, we were hit with the Covid-19 pandemic, and everything rapidly shut down,” she said. “Everyone is keen to re-activate our tourism industry, but we must not default to ‘business as usual’ … a new restart rather than a recovery to the old normal is more reasonable.”
Professor Sigala argues that Covid-19 has led to profound changes on tourists’ behaviour and expectations, as well as on industry operations which are predicted to have long-lasting impacts.
“We need to take advantage of the slow-down to reflect, rethink and plan for improved practices and behaviours,” she said. “This includes revisiting how tourism activities impact communities; respecting nature and surrounds to ensure we’re enhancing and giving back to the areas and assets that draw tourists; and we need to do that with a mindset that shows we are ready for a successful and sustainable future.”
She says that sustainability management should not be viewed as an expense to be managed, but as an investment for the future.
“While isolation has enabled physical environments a chance to recover from the lack of mass tourism, we must find a balance between caring for tourism assets – and the communities in which they reside,” Professor Sigala said. “When we commoditise and commercialise a cultural asset, we risk transforming it into an attraction driven by visitation defined by economic growth … the trade-off between economic and other values is our current mindset, and this needs to shift.”
Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison agreed that the shutdown could ignite people’s interest in new ways of travelling.
“There has been a rising interest in sustainability, and making sure you leave a light footprint when you travel,” she said. “We think this is going to accelerate people’s desire to travel more sustainably.”
The president of Tasmania’s National Parks Association, Nick Sawyer, also sees a chance to rethink tourism … and says that better management rather than endlessly building new infrastructure is the way to address larger numbers of visitors.
“For example, the very popular Wineglass Bay lookout is becoming too crowded, so the response has been to consider building a second lookout nearby,” he said. “You don’t need a second lookout … you could try and space the tourists more evenly over the course of the day, thereby avoiding the worst of the crowding and giving them a much better experience.”
He points to shuttle bus systems as an example of a way visitor numbers could be managed at Wineglass Bay, to ‘avoid having to expand the car park, yet again’.
Yes hopefully but I also see a great increase in travellers with vans due to no overseas travel. What was once a bit remote and didn’t have us crowded in May now be elbow room only as everyone else wants to be there too.. also many people have never towed so undoubtedly there will be more accidents. Such may be our life after Covid
There are idealists bred from education throughout the world. Go back when thinkers,engineers and landholders looked at finding answers through technology. Our young are dreamers and thats OK but reality still exists. Remember the Jetsons was just a cartoon!
So called scientists and journalists are the biggest problem for the world today.
Formally is just one way to learn. I have found better answers from listening to real people like farmers, business owners, mechanics, truck drivers, elders etc. Not from from university graduates.
Just saying.
Many, although not all uni graduates are educated fools, & I mean this in the nicest way
I think the Australian tourism industry should recognise the value of our own local population as a key driver in their planning n expectations instead of the emphasis on predominantly overseas tourists. Australian tourists have been treated as 2nd class compared to the Asian markets. Who is keeping your heads above water now and in near future ?
We returned to WA back in april we headed north in june when the borders opened ,but because WA is so vast with very little infrastructure betwen major towns everything is booked out as all the holiday makers have nowhere else to go we headed back from Kunanara all tourist spots booked solid, broome, Exmouth ,Coral Bay even struggled to get a site in Tom price, even road side stops seem to fill up by 3pm , we also found the tours offered in the Kimberly were extortionate and must have been catering for the asian market, a one day tour to horizontal falls for 2 , was equivent to flights and accommodation for 2 weeks in bali or thailand.